


Freeze or Fall

by LunaStarSeeker



Series: FoF [2]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Alter Egos, Angst, Big brother Exy!, Dream Communication, EX is friends with a robot, EX stop being a mom, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I can hear the murder squad readying their baseball bats, Jrumbot must be protected, NPG misses GRian, Oops, Robots, and I dont know if its a bad thing, except when he gets kidnapped, hes mentioned like twice, idk what to tag, joe is the mvp, no grian didn't die, oh look I made four main characters evil, shERLOCK GRIAN - Freeform, so sam is irrelevant now, team zit fluff, why do I like writing EX so much
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:00:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 37
Words: 26,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25324285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaStarSeeker/pseuds/LunaStarSeeker
Summary: With Grian still recovering and Evil Taurtis stronger than ever, Ex and Taurtis put their plan in motion, and not a moment too soon. A strange sickness is spreading through Hermitcraft, and it's side effects are... less than pleasant.(Read "Fight or Flight" first for context)
Relationships: None
Series: FoF [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1825201
Comments: 125
Kudos: 242





	1. Prologue

The cloaked man paces, muttering under his breath and typing on a screen. The screen flashes red every time he presses enter. After many tries, the screen finally yields, allowing him to input the next bit of code as he tiptoes through the data, threading a thin string through the magic that makes up his bond with the body he possessed. It was a delicate operation, he'd already messed up his tag trying a similar thing.

Hours pass as he finishes the changes footsteps behind him alert to the presence of another.

"I believe my work here is done?"

"Yes. I have no more use for you. I'll promote you to admin shortly, I must hold up my side of the deal after all." He quickly pulls up a new screen.

_Samgladiator has been promoted to Admin_

"It's done. I'll be on my way shortly."

"Awesome! If you ever need a hand, just call me up!" Sam grinned. "Thanks Taurtis!"

"That's not my name."

"Hmm?"

The cloaked man pressed enter one last time, the operation complete as the watcher magic flowed through his body once again, mingling with the other changes as he removed his cloak.

Two pitch-black wings rested on his back now, like someone had dipped a pair of dragonfly wings into a pool of tar. A pair of sharp horns sat on his head, and void-purple veins ran across the surface of his skin. His ears had tapered off into points, and his eyes had gained a slight purple glow.

He turned around and faced Sam, finally comfortable in his host's old body.

"Call me ET."


	2. Chapter 1: Void Sickness

Grian let out a raspy sigh as he gazed into the white orb in front of him. He had a blanket wrapped around him and felt like death, and watching over his own grave wasn't making things any better.

"You okay?"

"M'gonna cry over my own grave."

"So a no then." The man standing a distance away strode over and plopped down next to him, holding out a bowl of soup. "Eat."

"I'm not hungry." The faerie muttered.

The voidling rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter if you're hungry, you gotta eat. You're almost as bad as X."

That drew a giggle from the winged Hermit. "Fine. But don't expect me to finish it." He took the bowl and sipped, wrinkling his nose. "This doesn't taste like mushroom soup."

"Yeah, cause I added some stuff to help you recover quickly. I know it tastes terrible, but the sooner you recover, the sooner we can get you out of here."

The fae pinched his nose before swallowing the rest of the soup in a few gulps. "Uck. At least it wasn't bad enough to make me puke."

"As if. You're so weak right now you barely have a gag reflex." Ex responded. "But for now you should sleep. Taurtis headed off hours ago."

"You still haven't told me everything, just that Taurtis is alive, there's two of him, and the void's making me sick."

The voidling rolled his eyes. "I'll explain once you're better. For now, just sleep."

"Fine." Grian yawned before curling up, his wings folding over him like a giant, feathery blanket.

Ex stayed there for a few seconds to make sure the avian had really fallen asleep before walking into a random direction. It didn't really matter which way he walked, the void would take him to the next occupied place no matter how far he was from it.

Sure enough, in seconds, he ended up by a makeshift house, with a few torches scattered about. He opened the door and scowled.

"You should be asleep."

"Yeah, but something woke the dream guy up early."

Ex sat down on a stray chest. "So you think that's a real player?"

"Not just that. Mumbo Jumbo. Doesn't that sound familiar?" Taurtis bit his lip. "I think I've heard of him before, but I can't remember where."

"Ol' Mumbo Jumbo? He's a Hermit, mostly does redstone. Been with the group since season 2."

Taurtis made a timeout sign with his hands. "Hang on, that means we have a means of communication with the Hermits."

"We could've known this earlier if you'd dropped his name when you first saw him." Ex shrugged. "Then again, the fact that you're literally telecommunicating with someone you've never met before, is pretty nuts."

"Are you sure that's what telecommunicating means?"

"...no."

Taurtis sighed. "Anyways, if this really is a means of communication, it's not very stable. I think Mumbo forgets his dreams like a normal person."

"On another note, It's likely Grian and Mumbo know each other. They were friends before Grian joined the Hermits, right?" Ex added.

"That's where I heard of him. Grian mentioned him once or twice. Speaking of, how is Grian doing? It's not like him to isolate himself." Taurtis asked, his voice etched with worry.

Ex stretched his arms above his head. "He's doing a bit better, I managed to get him to choke down some soup that I slipped a void healing potion into. The void sickness should begin to clear up soon."

"I meant emotionally."

"I'm not the person to ask then. I'm not very good with emotions. My closest friend is a robot, for void's sake." Ex sighed.

"And while we're on the topic of that..."

"I still want to risk it. He's got access to the server, since he's an ex-alter like me." Ex responded curtly.

Taurtis fidgeted. "Well, if you did, perhaps I could try to ask Mumbo to build another robot in the server, and then your friend could connect with it?"

"Depends on whether Mumbo would remember." Ex reminded him. "But it's worth a shot, right?"

"Yeah. I guess you should risk it. When do you want to leave?"

"Not for a couple days, just until the sickness begins to clear up. For now, perhaps you could try to tell Mumbo through dreams?"

"It's a plan."


	3. Dreams and Gut  Feelings

Mumbo fell asleep and found himself face to face with Taurtis again.

"Uh.. Hi again I guess." Mumbo mumbled, not sure what to say.

"Hi Mumbo, uh, I only have a little bit of time until I wake up and so much to say. Please don't question me as I infodump on you."

Mumbo was a little surprised at that, but nodded.

Taurtis seemed to relax a bit before continuing. "I'm trying to fix a problem and I need your help. I need you to build a robot. Doesn't matter how it looks or anything, as long as it's got a standard AI and an answering system. You need to remember that when you wake up. Build a robot. Can you do that?"

"Yes, but can I inquire why?" Mumbo asked, puzzled.

Taurtis bit his lip. "It'll help you get Grian back."

Mumbo's eyes widened. "Wait-"

"Any more information is too dangerous. Remember to build a robot. Okay?"

"O-okay."

And then he felt that tug that would bring him back to consciousness. Taurtis was right, he had no time. Mumbo quickly began thinking "robot" over and over again, praying he'd be able to remember it long enough to jot it down when he woke up.

_Okay build a robot._

_Build a robot._

_Build robot._

_Robot._

.

.

Mumbo's eyes snapped open. "Robot, Build a robot." He muttered, grabbing a book and jotting it down.

He wasn't sure why, but something in his dream had told him to build a robot.

_That's... strange._

But he didn't have any other projects going on at the moment aside from his base, so Mumbo wrote it off as dream inspiration and reached for his agenda. Then he paused.

For the mayoral race, which was over now, he'd considered building a Mayoral Bot for advice. He'd only been running for mayor thanks to Hermit Challenges, and had no clue how to do a campaign. 

Perhaps... Perhaps he could try it, not sure what the robot would be for now. Maybe just a simple AI and answering system. yeah, that would work. Maybe he'd make a smaller version first, like a junior version, for debugs.

Mumbo chuckled as he jotted down the ideas, grateful to have an excuse to procrastinate on his base.

Now to locate his redstone shulker.

______________________

"Gri?"

Grian didn't say anything, but scooted over, inviting Taurtis to sit next to him. Taurtis obliged, putting an arm around Grian. The small builder snuggled up to him, not taking his eyes off the orb.

"You feeling any better?" Taurtis asked.

Grian answered with a tired mumble. "A little."

Taurtis studied the blond's face. He still looked sickly, but at least his eyes looked clearer, finally letting him see that familiar bright blue instead of the muddled green the illness had been showing.

"You feeling well enough to head back to the house?"

Taurtis noticed Grian hesitate.

"I... I think so?"

"Here, I'll help you walk." Taurtis helped Grian stumble to his feet, the fae leaning heavily on him. Taurtis quickly scooped up the orb and handed it to Grian to carry before the two stumbled off.

When they arrived, Ex was waiting for them. He quickly helped Grian to a bed, Taurtis grabbing a few more blankets to make the player comfortable. Then Grian voiced a small request.

"Do you guys have a.. um.. flower? It's important."

Taurtis nodded, checking his inventory. "I got one right here." He waited a couple seconds for Ex to close his eyes, before pulling out the flower and handing it to Grian.

The flower drooped a little, but didn't die. Grian gave a small sigh of relief and handed the flower back. Taurtis placed the flower back in his inventory before nudging Ex with his foot, who opened his eyes.

"I was checking my anxiety levels, it's a bit dangerous for you guys if it's too high." Grian explained, rubbing his eyes. "That's one of the reasons I isolated myself."

Taurtis sat down next to him, rubbing his shoulders. "I guess we have some stuff to explain, huh?"


	4. Crimson Red

Mumbo needed a workshop, somewhere out of the way of anything important. He would've used his industrial district, but there simply wasn't enough space. It was also far too cold there. So, after a quick chat with Scar, he scored an area off the coast of the SD. It was very close to his old campaigning HQ, which he needed to take down anyways so at least that was convenient.

After a slightly embarrassing crash landing on the mustache-shaped building, Mumbo got to work. He'd really built it as a joke, not exactly investing in his campaign. He was more of a filler candidate, the real competition between Stress and Scar. And now it was time to tera the place down.

A couple boomer-worthy explosions and half a shulker of grey concrete later, Mumbo had replaced the HQ with a large platform. He had several shulkers of redstone materials scattered about, and had set up a few tables. Mumbo quickly built up the sides and placed a roof on top, as well as plenty of lighting to avoid mobs.

It wasn't much, but it was a workshop. Open enough that any unexpected explosions didn't do too much damage, warm but not too hot thanks to the sea, and it was away from anything important.

So Mumbo got to work. He built a mock-up first, a smaller robot that was basically a box with limbs. After a couple calculations, Mumbo scrapped the design, keeping the mockup but building the final product differently.

Rather than having two legs, Mumbo opted for one for balance. He also made the torso a little more triangular, not quite avoiding the blocky middle. While the mockup was barely a block tall, the final was lifesize, standing just a little shorter than Mumbo. And as Mumbo began putting some details on, he began to ponder names.

He wanted to name it Mumbot at first, but it felt a little obvious, a little bland even. As Mumbo was searching for something to add onto the name, he noticed how the robot's "hair" looked similar to Grian's.

It sounded silly, but "Grumbot" had a nice ring to it. Maybe he could make the mockup it's little brother and name it "Jrumbot" or something. Mumbo chuckled at the thought.

Now for the internal components.

__________________________

"So, how's it coming along?"

"Our ally will be done in a couple days." Taurtis answered, rubbing his eyes.

Grian grinned. "Ally, huh?"

Taurtis stretched. "You sound a lot more cheery."

"Exy's yucky void medicine really does do wonders." Grian agreed.

Ex nodded. "And now that you're feeling better, I should take that mission. I need to arrive before that plan we discussed is set in motion. I'm actually ready to go, I was just waiting for you two to wake up."

"Hey Exy?"

"Yeah Gri?"

"When you see him, um, could you tell him I'm sorry for leaving him behind?"

Ex laughed. "Don't worry, he already knows that. I'm off, I guess. I know it's abrupt, but I need to get there as soon as possible."

Taurtis nodded. "Alright, just stay safe. You're sure you remember the IP address?"

"Yes Tortoise, I'm sure. As soon as ET's distracted, I'm gonna blip away. Already changed the message in advance."

Taurtis open his mouth to say bye, but Ex muttered something under his breath before as he said, blipping away.

Set world spawn to -1000, 876

_______________________

ET frowned as a message popped up.

Set world spawn to -1000, 876

Well, that was probably Sam, he- wait. This is a hardcore world. There is no world spawn.

Frowning, ET shot his associate a private message.

_________________________

By the time Mumbo had finished, redstone caked his suit and stained his fingernails.

The workshop was a mess, broken wires and failed components tossed aside, and burn marks from an accidental fire scorching the ceiling were all evidence at how hard it had been. But a few days later and he'd gotten it right.

Grumbot sat on the table, eyes lit up, but unmoving. Sure, the computer worked, but Mumbo still didn't know if it would actually connect the the robot's second CPU, the one that worked with inputs and outputs. The only reason it had two CPU's was because there was so much going on in the workings that it would overload the sing CPU and overheat the system.

Mumbo had learned that the hard way.

And now he was ready to turn on the second system and hope it all worked smoothly. So he reached out and pressed the button on the side of the bot's neck.

"Oh please work." Mumbo muttered, crossing his fingers.

______________________

Ex blinked his eyes open. He was lying on his back in a field. He wished he'd had a few more seconds to at least say goodbye to Taurtis and Grian, but the small window of opportunity hit as soon as he'd stopped talking.

Now that he thought about it, it was a bit quite wasn't it. Shouldn't there be-

_"RUSTIC HOUSE?!"_

Ah. There it was.

Ex grinned and sat up, glancing around, his eyes settling on the floating figure a few feet away. "Rustic house." He agreed.

The floating figure zoomed towards him, glitching and moving in a freaky way. This might've been terrifying to anyone else, but Ex was used to it by now.

"RED X RETURNED?"

"Yes, I'm here, I returned." Ex stood up, ruffling the android's hair. NPG broke out into a big smile, bouncing on his heels.

"BUILD RUSTIC HOUSE?"

"Sure, I bet you've made tons." Ex found the smile to be contagious, holding back a chuckle. Once you got past the glitchiness and general terrifying disposition, Npg was really fun to hang out with. Sure, he had a pretty strong hyperfixation with Rustic Houses, but those were one of the few things that make him happy.

When Ex had first met Npg, the little android was much worse, and far more buggy. Ex had done his best to fix him, but there were a few thing he was unable to solve, like the way of walking and the loud, sorta monotone voice. Even so, Npg had grown on him a lot, almost like a little brother.

As Ex followed Npg to the giant array of rustic houses, he told him about Grumbot and the situation with the new Taurtis.

"DO YOU THINK GRUMBOT WILL DEBUG ME?" Npg asked hopefully.

"Of course, and once he does, I'll be sure to finally finish fixing you up." Ex answered. "The reason i wasn't able to succeed last time is because I'm terrible at troubleshooting. Once the debug happens, it really a matter of a bit of maintenance to finish up."

"YAY."

Ex laughed a little. "But first, you'll need to have a system running in the background that'll search for Grumbot. Do you think you can manage that while building?"

"PROBABLY. I MIGHT BE LAGGY BUT YOU'LL HELP, YES?"

"Course."

A few seconds of silence.

"SYSTEM RUNNING. WANNA BUILD A RUSTIC VILLAGE?"

________________________

Mumbo stood back as Grumbot shivered before blinking and looking around.

"ERROR: BATTERY LOW."

"...really?" Mumbo snorted before taking a diamond and putting it in the bot's system. Unfortunately, the only source of fuel that could withstand the heat inside the system were diamonds or netherite, and diamonds were much easier to get. And even so, the bot burned through them quickly. "That was anticlimactic."

"BATTERY FULL. CONNECTION REQUEST FROM RH."

Mumbo frowned. What did that mea-

"CONNECTION TO RH COMPLETE. RH REQUIRES DEBUG. DEBUGGING.... DEBUGGING... DEBUG COMPLETE. SENDING REPORT TO RH. REPORT RECEIVED."

"What the-"

"RH INITIATING HARD RESET + RESTART. RESTART COMPLETE. CHECKING FOR UPDATES... ONE UPDATE FOUND. CHECKING FOR BUGS... NO INTERNAL BUGS FOUND."

_____________________

"GRUMBOT IS ONLINE. DEBUG ACTIVATING." NPG paused, dropping the blocks he was holding as his eyes turned green.

"NPG?"

"DEBUG COMPLETE. REPORT RECEIVED." EX watched as NPG's glitchiness faded a little. "INITIATING HARD RESET + RESTART..."

Ex panicked a little as NPG went dim and collapsed. A few seconds later, NPG's eyes lit up again. "RESTART COMPLETE. ONE UPDATE FOUND. NO BUGS FOUND. REPORT UPDATED. REPORT READS: VOICE MODULATOR SCRATCHED, MUST BE REPLACED."

"Whoa that was quick."

"UPDATE NEEDED. PLEASE DO NOT SHUT DOWN YOUR ANDROID WHILE UPDATE IS ON PROGRESS. UPDATE WILL BEGIN IN FIVE MINUETS."

"Uh..."

____________________

"RH ARE YOU ONLINE. REPLY RECEIVED."

"Reply? Wha-"

"RH SAYS YES. RH SAYS THANK YOU BUT RED X HELPED. RH SAYS UPDATE IMMINENT, MUST CEASE COMMUNICATIONS FOR NOW. OKAY RH. BYE."

Mumbo was speechless. What... just happened. "G-Grumbot?"

"HELLO MUMBO. I AM GRUMBOT. PLEASE DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THE PAST COMMUNICATION. IT WAS NOT IMPORTANT."

"Uh... How about I show you to Xisuma?"

"OKAY. TESTING BALANCE." Grumbot shakily moved off the table. "CALIBRATING, PLEASE WAIT A MOMENT."

A few minutes passed.

"OKAY I AM GOOD." The robot grinned, standing calmly. "LET'S GO SEE EGGS-ZOOMA."

_______________________

"Npg? Npg you okay?"

The android shivered a little. "Update complete. Wait, you fixed my voice?"

Ex grinned. "Yeah, after the update you shut off for a bit so I took the opportunity. How are you feeling?"

"Better. Weird, but better. I still wanna build a rustic house."

That earned a laugh from Ex. "Of course. Here, let me help you stand up." He helped Npg to his feet.

"Whoa, this is new."

"Yeah, that update?" Ex smiled. "Well, it looks like you've got a strong Alter bond with Grian. This is a very interesting development."

Npg hesitantly brought his hands to his ears, which were now pointed. He ran a hand through his hair, which met a pair of steel horns.

And resting comfortably on his back, was a pair of beautiful copper wings.

Npg shrugged. "Wanna finish the rustic village?"


	5. Finally Getting Somewhere

Xisuma idly tapped at the screen, doing his now daily routine of checking the server and its inhabitants. It had became a necessity, with the huge amount of mega-farms as well as the brand new minigame district in progress. Not to mention the other crazy projects like Scar's drill and Tango's insane dungeon game.

It was a good thing he'd made it a daily habit, since he managed to catch an unauthorized connection that went out-of-server, something that sent up red flags.

Frowning, Xisuma tapped on the hyperlink, checking to try and see who'd managed to cross the Firewall. He prayed it was someone he knew, he didn't want a repeat of last season. Not after what it had done to his family, leaving Doc with PTSD and Grian...

He shook his head. Focus. Xisuma squinted as he read the IP Address, not recognizing it. Huh. Well, time for plan be. Find out who, or more accurately _what_ sent it.

_Transmission sent from 01001110 01010000 01000111_

Oh. Binary. Great.

Xisuma rubbed his temples as he grabbed a spare piece of paper and a quill to scribble down the calculations. He prayed the ASCII and Unicode translations were the same, he'd rather not have to dig into the IP to see which language was used.

Lucky for him, both translated to three letters. _NPG._

Xisuma hesiated, not sure who or what that was. It's species read as an Alter though, which was quite interesting, especially since it was it's own host.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door.

"Come in!"

"Oh uh. Uhm this is kinda. Well, hi Egg-zooma." The admin easily recognized the voice as Mumbo's, and turned around.

"Hi Mumbo Jumbo. What brings you here? Issue with a gold farm I presume? Those have been rather frequent with everybody recently."

"Well, no, but uh-"

"HELLO ARE YOU X?"

Xisuma nearly fell out of his chair at that, the startlingly monotone voice coming from behind Mumbo.

"Mumbo? What did you-"

A robot, one slightly taller than Mumbo, stepped into the room. "I AM GRUMBOT. HELLO."

"I uh, have no clue how voice modulators for robots work, sorry." Mumbo apologized with a sheepish smile. "So yeah, this is Grumbot. And this," he stepped aside to show a short little robot hiding behind his legs, "Is Jrumbot. I uh, built them. Impulsively. Because of a dream."

"Oh." Xisuma blinked, before his mind snapped back to the transmission. "Hey Mumbo, did either of these um... Carry out communication with something or someone not from his server?"

"Uh... Yes?" Mumbo rubbed the back of his neck. "It happened as soon as I turned Grumbot on. He connected with what I believe is another robot, one under the name 'RH'. RH also mentioned someone named 'Red X' which was weird too."

"Red X?"

"Yeah."

Xisuma immediately thought of his brother, Ex, but almost pushed the thought away. Hadn't Exy perma'd a couple years back? But then Xisuma remembered something that weird Taurtis guy had said. Something about Ex helping him in a way that did nothing. Well actually, maybe a way that saved his life. And if that was true...

"Hang on a sec Mumbo." Xisuma turned back to his screens and pulled up the character changelogs as fast as he could, clicking on his own. He scrolled down to a few months ago, the week the whole thing had happened.

A simple code cast on him, one that confirmed his hunch.

"Xisuma? What is it?"

"Back when I was, ahem, removed from the server, the captor put a code on me. I think he thought it would make me weaker or something, but actually it was a completely different one, just a similar line. They actually put a virus in my code unknowingly, one that would half any damage I take."

"I don't follow."

Xisuma couldn't do anything but stare at the screen.

"I'm not sure who RH is, but I do recognize this code. Only I and one other person know it."

"Who?"

Xisuma glanced back at Mumbo, a grin on his face. "Evil Xisumavoid."


	6. Whispers

ET narrowed his eyes at the screen. Sam had been clueless about the spawnpoint change, so they'd taken a look at the changelog. The change was easy to spot, a little bit of reverse hacking and it was back to normal.

_Evil Xisuma has left the game_

"So. What does this mean?" Sam asked, twirling a knife in his fingers.

ET closed the screen with an impatient huff. "It means that part two must be put in motion."

"Sweet! I assume you want to do this yourself right?" Sam answered, sheathing the knife.

"Yes. My work here is done. If you need to find me, you know what to do." ET pulled out his own communicator. "Hermitcraft has no idea what's coming for them."

_ET has left the game_

__________________________

Jrumbot stumbled through the jungle, making their way to the giant snail that rested on the ground. A wizard was rummaging through a chest monster, but glanced up when Jrumbot ambled into the clearing.

"Hey little guy! You're a bit far from home, shouldn't you be with Mumbo?" Scar wondered, walking over.

Jrumbot didn't answer, just making grabby arms with a sweet smile.

"You want up? Okay." Scar chuckled, picking up the small robot. "I hope you don't make Jellie jealous. Now, where was I?"

Scar hoisted the small robot's weight over to one arm, freeing one to continue rummaging through the chests. A few minutes later and Scar found what he was looking for.

"Ah! There it is!" Scar grinned, slipping the Jellie snacks into his inventory.

_"You're a lot like your host, hmm?"_

Scar frowned, glancing around.

_"Don't you think it's unfair, being trapped in that body?"_

"Jrumbot, you can't hear that, can you?"

The robot shook its head.

"Maybe I should go back to the mindspace." Scar mumbled, setting Jrumbot down.

_"Back to the place you cannot escape? You know, he used to hate that place. He saw what I can see."_

"Who?" Scar frowned, glancing around for the disembodied voice.

_"You know who. BadTimes. But of course, an evil alt only gets so much freedom. Besides, being tied to the Vex gave him an easy escape, able to go back to Hels. I never got that luxury."_

"Who are you?" Scar asked out loud.

_"It doesn't matter. But I know who you are, Wizard Scar. You have a lot of leeway, being an alter that's so similar to your host. It would be so easy to just... Take over."_

"What?! No!? Why would I do that?!"

_"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Guess we'll have to do this the hard way then."_

_______________________

"Jrumbot? Jrumbot where are you?" Mumbo called out, trudging through the jungle.

"JRUMBOT. ARE YOU CLOSE?" Grumbot asked, falling in step.

The little guy had wandered off after Mumbo took his eyes off him for two seconds. Grumbot had been able to track him to the jungle biome, but the dense trees had made the racker impossible to find once they entered.

"Jrumbot? Oh thank goodness!" Mumbo breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted Jrumbot outside Scar's snail. He ran forwards and hugged the robot, checking over for any damages, and pausing when he saw the worried look on Jrumbot's face.

Jrumbot grabbed Mumbo's sleeve and tugged him over in the direction of Scar's snail. As they rounded the corner, Mumbo paled.

"Grumbot, go drop Jrumbot off with Iskall."

The taller robot nodded, scooping up their sibling and hurrying away. Mumbo pulled out his communicator and privately messaged Xisuma.

_Mumbo Jumbo: Xisuma, something bad happened to Scar. We're at his snail, please hurry!_

_Xisumavoid: On my way, is there by any chance a black unidentifiable substance around him?_

_Mumbo Jumbo: Yes, how'd you know?_

_Xisumavoid: Something happened to Ren too. Just whatever you do, don't touch that black stuff. Wels made that mistake, and now he's in the same state as Ren, and as I'm guessing Scar too._

_Mumbo Jumbo: Should I DM Doc?_

_Xisumavoid: He's watching Ren and Wels, but I'll let him know about Scar. Stay safe, I'm almost there._


	7. Sickness

"ISKALL"

Iskall jumped a little, and turned around. Sure enough, two robots were standing a ways behind him.

"SORRY"

"No, it's okay, you startled me, that's all. What brings you two here?" Iskall asked, placing down the shulker he was carrying.

Grumbot set Jrumbot on a shulker. "SOMETHING HAPPENED TO SCAR. MUMBO ASKED ME TO LEAVE JRUMBOT WITH YOU, IF THAT'S OKAY."

"It's fine, but um. What happened to Scar?"

"I DON'T KNOW, BUT HE LOOKED TO BE ALIVE SO THAT'S SOMETHING."

___________________________

Mumbo was pacing when Xisuma landed.

"I-I just found h-him like this." Mumbo stuttered.

Scar was collapsed on the ground, unconscious. there were splotches of black goo around him, some even on his skin. He looked pale, but was breathing at least.

"We should get him to Doc, he might know what's going on." Xisuma said, pulling up his admin screen. "Hold o, I'm gonna teleport us."

Mumbo held his breath as Xisuma typed in the command, and the unfamiliar feeling ripped through his body. Teleporting wasn't a very comfortable thing, but at least it was fast. Before he knew it, they were in a makeshift medical building, Scar lying on one of the beds. Mumbo took a moment to be impressed with Xisuma's precision before the nausea set in.

Mumbo quickly grabbed a bucket from his inventory and threw up. "Sorry, I get motion sick." he mumbled.

"That's alright, it was your first time anyways." Xisuma reassured him, before turning to Doc. "Find anything?"

Doc shook his head. "Unfortunately not. All I can say for sure is that the black stuff is contagious. This sickness doesn't seem to be airborne, which is a relief, but I'm going to do some more testing. I called up Stress, we're going to partner up to figure out what's going on."

"Okay, any other course of action we should take?" Xisuma asked. "You're the expert here."

"We should warn everyone about the black stuff, and keep these three quarantined for now. Their bases should be off limits as well to avoid a spread." Doc answered. "Anyone who's been near near them in the past 24 hours should quarantine themselves too, just in case."

Xisuma nodded, pulling out his communicator. "I'll let the other Hermit's know."

"I guess I'll hole myself up in my base." Mumbo said. "I'll message Iskall and let him know as well."

"Good. We need to take as many precautions as possible until we find out more about this."


	8. Friends in Unusual Places

Grumbot wandered around the mesa, making sure he stayed fairly close to Ren's base. Since he'd barely been around the unidentifiable black substance, or Omega USB Of Doom as Iskall had nicknamed it. Of course, the acronym was a little switched around, but Grumbot chose to ignore that.

He kicked a pebble. Lucky him. Right? Iskall, Jrumbot, and Dad were stuck in one place or another thanks to the sickness, but he was lucky enough to pass. Now he just wandered around the mesa, trying to find something to do.

_Incoming transmission._

Grumbot curiously answered.

_Transmission received. Request to call?_

Hm.

_Request confirmed._

___________________

Npg hummed to himself, waiting for the answer. The sun had gone down and Exy was asleep, leaving Npg to his own devices. Being honest, building was pretty lonely without someone to talk with.

So he impulsively contacted the connecting robot in Hermitcraft, hoping for an answer.

_Request confirmed._

Npg brightened a bit, sending the transmission to call. "Hello?"

"HELLO. ARE YOU RH?"

"Hi, and yes. But you can call me NPG."

"PLEASURE. YOU CAN CALL ME GRUMBOT."

Npg smiled, detailing the roof of his latest house. "Nice to have someone to talk to. I'm pretty lonely right now."

"SAME HERE."

"Your voice sounds funny, no offense."

"NONE TAKEN. MY DAD DOESNT KNOW MUCH ABOUT ROBOTICS, AND I WAS KINDA RUSHED. VOICE WAS A BIT LOW PRIORITY."

"Soooooo uh, whatcha doing?"

"AIMLESSLY WANDERING AROUND A MESA BIOME. YOU?"

"Building. Almost done detailing the roof, then it's just the interior I have to do."

"COOL."

Npg placed down a few more pieces of wood before gliding off the build. "You sound bored."

"YEAH. THOUGH I HAVE THE INKLING YOU AREN'T."

"I heard there's some pretty cool mineshafts in the Mesa, perhaps you could find something valuable there?" Npg suggested. "I stumble upon those a lot when getting terracotta."

"MAYBE."

The two talked for a while, the moon going along its course. Grumbot did find a mineshaft, and ended up collecting some shiny stuff from the chests. Npg finished his build and began a new one, the rhythm and muscle memory soothing.

Eventually the two got onto the topic of family and friends.

"-AND YEAH, I REALLY MISS MY DAD. IT'S PRETTY LONELY BY MYSELF."

"I know how you feel." Npg answered with a sigh. "I miss Grian."

"Grian?"

"Yeah. He built me, knowing how much I loved rustic houses. I unfortunately broke really quickly and he wasn't able to fix me properly. I used to have a brother..." Npg trailed off at the thought of Robot Grian. "But he left a long time ago. For a while, it was just me and Grian. I'd build my houses, and he'd practice whatever. Just us in a survival world. And then he was invited to Evo, and I never saw him again."

"THAT MUCH TIME ALONE... YOU REALLY ARE LONELY. I'M SO SORRY, THAT MUST BE HORRIBLE."

"No it's okay. Besides, I wasn't completely alone. About a year after Grian left, a stranger joined my world. He was an ex-alter, kind of like me. At first he was scared of me, and I was scared of him. But after some time, we got used to each other. He fixed me as well as he could, but eventually he had to leave too. He still visits me sometime's which was nice. He's actually asleep in one of my nearby builds."

"AWW THAT'S SWEET."

"I guess you could say he's like an older brother to me." Npg commented. "But even so, I still hold out hope that Grian will return someday."

_____________________

Grumbot hesitated, not wanting to break the bad news. "NPG, MY DAD KNEW GRIAN."

"He did?"

"YEAH, GRIAN WAS A CLOSE FRIEND OF HIS."

"I bet they've done fantastic things as a team."

"NPG THAT WAS SIX MONTHS AGO."

"Six months?"

Grumbot sat down, dreading his next words. "NPG I'M SO SORRY BUT... GRIAN'S DEAD."


	9. Connections

"Psst. Wake up, we need to go."

Grian frowned, drowsily sitting up. "Taurtis? Wha-"

Taurtis looked worried, anxiously glancing over his shoulder. "Grian, we need to leave. We've been discovered."

"What?" Grian pulled himself out of bed, stumbling a bit to get his footing.

Taurtis handed Grian his communicator. "We don't have much time, we're gonna have to use the old portals in Evo. Please tell me you still have access."

Grian quickly tapped at his communicator. "Yes, I do. But how're gonna get there? Neither of us have perms to teleport."

"I can get us out of the End, but you'll have to fly us to the server island."

"But isn't it surrounded by bedrock?"

"One problem at a time." Taurtis said, grabbing Grian's wrist. "Hold on."

________________________

"Please don't drop me Grian. Please." Taurtis gasped, holding on to Grian for dear life.

Grian flapped his wings again, soaring higher and higher. "Almost there, the island's in sight."

A few more flaps and they landed on the top of the bedrock sphere. "Okay, now what? How do we break the bedrock?"

"Um... Remember our time with the Watchers? They had to have taught us something about this..." Taurtis paced a little, thinking. "C'mon, remember. They had to have said something..."

Grian knelt down, running a hand over the unbreakable rock. There were three ways to break it. One, with Watcher magic. Two, using some kind of glitch like Impulse does. And three...

A memory, a long-forgotten note popped up in his head.

_______________________

_Hey G,_

_So something happened and now your spawn is permanently set to spawn island, not sure why. Aslo, you kinda have Keep Inventory on for some reason. Hopefully this'll go back to normal, but don't worry. If anything regarding those changes, don't hesitate to text me._

_\- Xisumavoid_

_______________________

Grian paused for a second, gears turning in his head. The only way someone's spawn would be permanently set to spawn island would be in Adventure mode, right?

It was like he'd found a corner piece under a rug, leading to more puzzle pieces fitting into place. Grian realized what Xisuma, Iskall, and Scar had before. Admin, Fae, and Creative mode magic, all the same. 

If it had been him who changed his own gamemode that day...

Grian closed his eyes and focused on his body, it's inner workings and everything. He focused on the magic inside of him, and tried to cast a spell he didn't know how to cast.

A few seconds went by, and Grian opened his eyes and focused all the energy he'd built up down into his fist. His hand glowed a faint lavender, and he took a deep breath before bringing his hand down onto the block.

_Pop_

"Did... Did you just..."

Grian stared at the bedrock in his inventory. All of a sudden, a wave of nausea washed over him, and he keeled over, falling into the sphere.

...

"-ian? Grian? Grian are you okay?"

Grian winced, sitting up. "What... What happened?"

"You broke the bedrock and passed out. We're in Evo now."

Grian winced again, his entire body was just stinging, especially his hand. "Wh-what now?"

Taurtis carefully helped him to his feet. "We'll need to rendezvous with Ex as soon as possible. According to him, the server he's in is an old singleplayer world, which means Evil Me won't look there for us."

"How even did he find out about us?" Grian asked, leaning against Taurtis for support. "And shouldn't we just call him ET?"

"Yeah, ET sounds about right. Short for Extra Trash." Taurtis joked, trying to lighten the mood. "Anyways, I'm not sure how he found out. Point is he did. On another note, are you okay? I have a feeling what you did back there wasn't Watcher magic."

Grian nodded. "I'll explain later. For now, we should get moving, we need to get to the singleplayer world as fast as possible."

"Okay. But take it easy, you're hurt."


	10. Voicemail

Silence hovered over Grumbot as he waited for Npg's response. It was quiet. Too quiet.

Then...

"What do you mean by that?" Npg's tone was hard to understand.

Grumbot paused. "I MEAN LIKE HE'S PERMA-DEAD. NOT COMING BACK."

...

...

Another heavy silence settled, leaving Grumbot to wonder. It seemed that Npg had muted for a bit, which confused Grumbot a little.

Then finally Npg spoke again.

"Can you keep a secret? It's a very important secret, and spilling it could cause trouble."

"OKAY."

"..."

"NPG?"

Npg brought his voice to a whisper. "Grian is alive. I don't know where he is right now, but he's alive."

"WHA- WHAT?"

"Yeah, just don't tell anyone. But... Hang on." Npg muted again.

The he unmuted. "Actually, could you do me a favor? Could you tell X-eye-zoomee-a something?"

"...UH YOU MEAN XISUMA RIGHT?"

"That's the one. Tell him his brother is returning."

"OKAY. I DUNNO WHAT THAT MEANS BUT OKAY."

"I uh, have to go. Something came up, important stuff. Remember, don't tell anyone about Grian, at least not yet."

"OKAY. IT WAS NICE SPEAKING TO YOU."

"Pleasure. Bye!"

"BYE."

And that was it. The call ended.

___________________

Npg hung up, turning to Ex with a smile. "Good morning."

"Morning to you too. Glad I caught you before your call ended. Anyways, Grian and Taurtis are on their way." Ex rubbed his eyes.

Npg lit up a bit. "I can't wait to show Grian my rustic houses!"

Ex chuckled. "I bet he'll be real proud. How about we head over to spawn, and wait for them?"

"Okay!" Npg quickly ran over to a chest and grabbed a lot of materials, probably for another rustic house.

_Taurtis joined the game_

_Grian joined the game_

____________________

Grumbot dropped by Ren to let him know where he was going, before heading off to find Xisuma's base. It wasn't too difficult to locate, just a short walk to the other jungle.

The man in question was somewhere deep inside his base, poring over code and other work. Grumbot awkwardly knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

Grumbot pushed the door open, revealing the Admin who had multiple screens up. He was frowning at one line of code, something that had to do with other players. Grumbot wasn't sure what.

"UM. I HAVE AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE."

Xisuma turned around, seemingly surprised that it was Grumbot. "Oh, hello. A message? From who?"

Grumbot hesitated. "I HAVE AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE." He repeated.

"Um, okay. What's the message?"

"YOUR BROTHER IS RETURNING."


	11. Awakened

_Corruption._

_..._

_It does it's work, feeding into the magic that keeps them alive._

_..._

_Heh. I'm not controlling them._

_..._

_All I did was awaken their true purpose._

______________

Hels opened his eyes. At one he knew something was different.

He wanted to say something was wrong but...

No.

Nothing was wrong.

Everything finally felt right.

____________

"We-Hels. Oh thank goodness you're awake, I was getting worried." Xisuma approached the knight, a couple screens up. "I wish I could tell you what happened bu..."

Hels stood up, too silent for Xisuma's liking. Something was different. A shiver ran down Xisuma's back as Hels looked around.

Hels paused when his eyes swept over the other two occupied beds.

"Um... Hels? You feeling alright?"

Hels was silent, simply walking over to where Ren was.

"Wake up."

Renbob's eyes shot open, and he sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Hels then walked over to Scar and did the same, Wizard Scar waking up.

Xisuma felt frozen in place.

"Wizard Scar. Renbob. You two feel that right?"

The two in question stood up, nodding.

"Well? We have a job to do."

_______________

Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. 

The three alters turned towards him, and one word flashed through his mind.

_Run._

And he did. Xisuma stumbled through the jungle outside, running into Doc and Stress, who were carrying more supplies.

"Xisuma? What happened?" Doc frowned.

"Something's very wrong. All three of them woke up, at least their alters did, but..." Xisuma paused to catch his breath. "They're different. That black stuff did something to them,and I don't know what but I'm pretty sure something dangerous."

Doc pulled out his trident. "I'll go check it out. You two stay here."

______________

Iskall sorted some shulkers, keeping an eye on Jrumbot, who'd busied himself with some repeaters and comparators.

He paused when his communicator dinged.

_Docm77 was slain by Helsknight using [Knight's Blade]_

_Docm77: Well crap_

_Stressmonster was slain by Wizard Scar using [Wheelchair Armrest]_

_Xisumavoid was slain by Helsknight using [Knight's Blade]_

_Iskall85: What's going on?_

_Docm77: Well, lets just say we have three evil alters on the loose._

_Xisumavoid: If you guys see Wels, Ren, or Scar, DO NOT ENGAGE_

_Xisumavoid: They don't have any elytras on them so try to find a safe spot somewhere high up_

_Stressmonster: I think we can all agree that this is a server emergency_

_Docm77: Everyone, grab a buddy and find somewhere high up to camp._

_Falsesymmetry: If there's enough of use, I'm sure we can take them. Right?_

_Stressmonster: Falsey, they took out Doc with one hit. They're different._

_Tango Tek: Different like them?_

_Xisumavoid: I won't let us lose another hermit. I promise._

_________________

Grumbot ran quickly, trying to get back to the other jungle as fast as he could. The mesa was too open, no longer safe.

It didn't take him long to push through the undergrowth and find Iskall's tree, running inside. Iskall was already packing up supplies, Jrumbot sitting on top of a shulker, happily oblivious to the looming danger.

"Grumbot, here's an elytra. Mumbo taught you how to use one, right?"

Grumbot nodded, slipping it on and pulling out rockets. "WHERE WILL WE GO?"

"We'll meet Mumbo and camp at the top of his base." Iskall explained.

"OKAY." Grumbot walked over to his little brother and picked him up.

_______________

"Glad you guys made it." Mumbo gave a sigh of relief, pulling the three into a big hug. "Any idea what's going on?"

"I wish." Iskall confessed. "We haven't had anything this bad happen since, well, you know..."

Mumbo's face fell, his voice getting a little quieter. "I know."

Grumbot hesitated, feeling absolutely torn seeing his father like this. But... He'd made NPG a promise. He wished he could tell Dad that Grian was alive, to cheer him up in some way. But he couldn't.

He knew that the incident was still a hard subject for some of the hermits, especially Mumbo. He didn't know many of the details, but enough to understand why it was so bad. There wasn't much he could do.

And honestly, he needed advice.

Iskall and Dad were talking quietly, probably about adult stuff, so Grumbot walked to the other side of the grassy area and sat down.

_Sent transmission_

_Transmission Received_

_Request to call accepted_

"HI NPG. SOME STUFF HAS... HAPPENED."

______________

.. -. / - .... . / -... . --. .. -. -. .. -. --. / --- ..-. / - .... . / -.-. .... .- .--. - . .-. / . - / .-- .- ... -. .----. - / - .... . / --- -. . / .-- .... --- / ... .--. --- -.- .


	12. Halfway Reunited

_Taurtis joined the game_

_Grian joined the game_

Npg nervously walked with Exy to spawn, a long ways away from where he'd be working.

"So... Grumbot, huh?" Exy commented.

Npg shrugged. "Yeah. You were asleep and I got lonely."

...

"Um, Exy?"

"Yeah?"

Npg hesitated. "It's been... It's been years since I last saw him."

"I'm sure he'll be happy to see you." Exy said, placing a hand on the android's shoulder.

"But what if..." Npg trailed off, not entirely sure what to say. He was nervous about seeing Grian again, but he had no clue why.

He twiddled his thumbs, trying to sort out his feelings. "Do you think he'll be proud of me?"

Exy smiled. "Npg, why did Grian create you?"

"He wanted to create the perfect rustic house builder, one that could teach others how to build them. But I kept malfunctioning and-"

"And I fixed you. And then you taught me so well I'm sure I could build them in my sleep." Exy said. "And look at how much you've built! Grian's bound to be impressed. Don't sweat it."

__________________

Grian sat up, glancing around the spawn. It was just as he'd remembered. A small clearing, trees all around. Oak forest biome, dotted with various flowers.

"We're actually..." Grian trailed off.

Taurtis had stood up, and was looking around, trying to find Ex's player tag. "He doesn't seem to be here yet."

Grian stood up, a question in his head. "I wonder... Taurtis?"

"Yeah?"

"My old house should be around here, I wonder if it's still standing." Grian lit up. "Let's go check it out!"

The two made their way through the trees, Grian finally resolving to flying above the canopy while Taurtis parkoured across the leaves. Eventually the forest opened up to a wide clearing, with a quaint little house in the middle. Grian quickly landed in front of the door, opening it.

It was just as he remembered, the interior intact. Dusty, yes, but intact. Grian rounded a corner, pointedly glancing away from a closet in the corner. The two made their way through the house, Grian pretty much giving a tour. Eventually they finished, leaving the house to look at it from the outside. Everything was just as he'd left it.

"So this is where you lived before Evo?" Taurtis asked.

Grian nodded. "I mean, I had nowhere to go after high school, so I decided to research other servers, and made myself a singleplayer. Well, it's more of a multiplayer now, huh?"

"And then you eventually made Evo."

"And I haven't been back since." Grian sighed. "It's been years, Taurtis. Years."

Taurtis glanced around again, searching for Ex's tag once more. "You're worried he's gonna hate you, right?"

Grian sighed. "Yeah. I did kinda abandon him. In fact, I gave up on him a long time ago, but now..."

"They're here."

_________________

Npg held Exy's hand as they approached the other two players.

For the first time in years, Npg and Grian faced each other. Both of them waited for the other's reaction.

And then Npg shattered, running forward and tackling Grian in a hug.

"I've missed you so much."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Upload schedule: Wednesdays and Fridays, occasionally on Mondays


	13. Explanations

Grian broke away from the hug, holding Npg's arms. He looked... Different. The horns, the wings, like he'd changed with Grian. He looked nothing like the glitchy mess Grian remembered.

"You're... Different." The words tumbled out of Grian's mouth before he could stop them, but Npg didn't seem fazed.

"Exy fixed me!"

"He-he did?" Grian glanced over to Ex, who had a somewhat smug grin on his face.

"I know a thing or two about Andriods."

Grian smiled and pulled Npg back into another hug. "I'm so sorry for leaving you behind, I should've visited you or something-"

"No, it's okay!" Npg interrupted. "I forgive you for that, and I took the time to improve my skills!"

Ex nodded. "He really did, and he's a great teacher."

Npg lit up. "Can I show you some of my favorite houses? Please?"

Grian felt a chuckle escape his mouth. "Of course!"

__________________

Npg had built a lot. Like, a _lot._

They walked around the world for a while, Taurtis positively gaping at the sheer amount of rustic houses. Ex didn't seem fazed, obviously, and Grian was somewhat expecting to see the vast expanse, but Taurtis? Yeah, he wasn't prepared.

"That... That's a lot of houses."

"Yeah, the stretch for miles in each direction."

"Miles!?"

Ex grinned. "But no worries, it's not that hard to get to the main house. Grian can fly with Npg, and I'll do some ender pearl stuff with Taurtis."

"Alright, race?" Npg asked.

Ex grabbed Taurtis' arm, an ender pearl already equipped. "Is that even a question?"

_______________

Grian laughed, flying along with Npg as they raced Ex and probably a very surprised Taurtis. He'd never really taken time aside to truly appreciate his wings, and how free he felt, flying without an elytra. Just him against the winds, as he followed closely behind Npg.

"This is one of the only few things I love other than Rustic Houses." Npg commented, doing a barrel roll in the air."

"Mhm, and what are the others?" Grian asked curiously.

Npg contemplated that for a moment, as Grian did a couple loop-de-loops. "The other two things I like? Well one is gardening, I often terraform while my battery recharges."

Grian flapped his wings a few times to catch up. "And the other?"

Npg hesitated.

"I guess... Spending time with Exy."

Grian coasted along the wind, catching a good air current. "I never did get to learn your history with him."

"Well, it's not that complicated." Npg folded his wings and dove, pulling up at the last second into a loop-de-loop and using an updraft to soar back up to Grian. "One day, about a year after you left, Exy joined this world. We were scared of each other at first, but slowly we learned to live with each other. From there," Npg took spread out his arms, allowing the wind to carry him along. "we just warmed up to each other. One day, he let me try to teach him how I built. Then the next, he offered to try to fix me. from there we just grew close. He'd leave sometimes, but he always came back. Then he told me he had to leave for a long time. I didn't see him for about eight months. Then he finally came back a few days ago."

"I'm glad you didn't have to spend all that time alone."

"Me too."

The two finally landed in front of a large, tall house, one that kind of reminded Grian of his house from Season six's build off.

He twiddled his thumbs. "Npg?"

"Yeah?"

"How were you able to heal so well?"

Npg ran a hand through a berry bush near the porch. "I'm not sure. Maybe it was because I had time, or because I had someone to listen." He turned his head towards Grian, smiling a little. "Perhaps it's cause deep down, I'm still you."

"Still me?"

Npg shrugged. "When we split, you lost your passion for rustic houses."

"Split? Passio-"

_Fwoop_

"Aw c'mon! You beat us!" Ex exclaimed good naturedly.

Taurtis stumbled forwards a few steps. "I am _so_ dizzy."

"Course you are, rapid-fire ender pearls can do that to a human." Npg shrugged, turning to face the house.

Almost suddenly, a strange awkward silence began to settle over the four, Grian deciding to break it.

"So uh can you guys finally explain why I didn't die and what the heck is going on with Taurtis' evil counterpart, and more importantly, _why Taurtis isn't dead!?_ "

"Ah yeah, we still need to explain that, don't we..." Ex scratched the back of his neck. "Where to begin..."

"I'll start." Taurtis nodded. "To keep it as short as possible, I got an evil alter while I was with the watchers, who somehow found a way to toss me in the void. Though instead of me dying, I crashed into Ex on my way down, who just noped us out of there. I'd been stuck in that void since."

"Since ET is technically still an alter of Taurtis, he was able to figure out his plans. So we worked together to ensure the safety of whoever ET managed to 'kill'. We originally thought it would be Xisuma, with a low chance of you saving him, but since you hurled yourself into the void after him, things changed."

"We thought for a moment you succeeded, but then ET split from me completely and the next thing I knew you were falling again."

Grian blinked. "That is... simpler than I thought it would be."

"Yep. And then Taurtis began seeing Mumbo his his dreams and-"

"Hold up. You talked to Mumbo!?" Grian gaped at Taurtis.

"Yeah, he's a really nice guy. Anyways, we figured out a way of communicating with Hermitcraft through a robot I convinced Mumbo to build." Taurtis finished.

Grian put his hands to his lips in a "boi" gesture, inhaling deeply. "You guys told me like half of this."

Ex shrugged. "To be fair, you were really sick, so..."

"Wait. Grumbot's calling."

"Grumbot?" Grian asked.

Ex nodded. "Yeah that's the robot in Hermitcraft we mentioned. they're kinda friends."

Npg turned away for a moment, listing to a voice only he could hear.

"Oh. What happened?"

...

"Oh that is not good."

...

"Who's with you right now?"

...

"Okay, I have no advice to give for this situation, but I have three people standing behind me who'd be thrilled to help."

...

"Alright, stay safe. Bye." Npg turned back to the three players behind him.

"So um, Hermitcraft is in big trouble."


	14. Discoveries

Xisuma swiftly landed on the top of Mumbo's base. He was flying around, making sure everyone was in a safe place. 

"Xisuma? What's going on? What happened with Wels, Scar, and Ren?" Mumbo asked nervously.

Xisuma sighed defeatedly. "Whatever that black stuff was, it seemed to have corrupted their alters, making them stronger and giving them really dangerous motives. And at this point, I don't know what to do. Their code says everything is normal, aside from the fact that I can't ban them."

Iskall placed a hand on Xisuma's shoulder. "We'll figure something out. There must be a way to fix this omega problem."

"Is there some way to keep them in one place?" Mumbo asked hopefully.

Xisuma shook his head. "If we were back in season 6, Area 77 would work wonders, but that took Scar and Doc months to build, and I'm afraid we don't have that amount of time."

"UM."

The three hermits turned to glance at the robot, who'd been awkwardly standing behind them. He nervously twiddled his thumbs, making a decision.

"THERE MAY BE A WAY TO FIX THIS. I JUST... DON'T HAVE ALL THE DEATILS QUITE YET."

"You know something about this?" Xisuma asked.

Grumbot nodded. "YOU KNOW HOW EX IS SUPPOSIDLY RETURNING?"

"Yeah?"

"RIGHT NOW HE'S WORKING WITH A COUPLE PLAYERS AND AN ANDRIOD FRIEND OF MINE. I TOLD THEM THE PROBLEM, HOPEFULLY THEY CAN FIND A SOLUTION."

Iskall frowned. "Who are these players he's working with?"

Grumbot hesitated. "I'M NOT ALLOWED TO TELL YOU YET."

"Why?" Mumbo asked. "And how long have you had this friend?"

Grumbot shuffled his feet. "I-"

Just then, Xisuma's communicator began beeping rapidly. He quickly answered it, the messages from the multi-server chat.

_Evil-Xisumavoid: X_

_Evil-Xisumavoid: I heard about Hermitcraft_

_Evil-Xisumavoid: I've made the decision to help_

_Evil-Xisumavoid: Are you safe right now?_

_Xisumavoid: Yeah, I am. The entire server is hiding in the sky, I'm with Mumbo, Iskall, and Grumbot. I assume you know Grumbot, yes?_

_Evil-Xisumavoid: THANK THE HERMITS IN THE SKIES_

_Evil-Xisumavoid: Anyways, yeah I know Grumbot._

_Evil-Xisumavoid: On another note, I have two players with me who've spent time with the Watchers and might know what's going on. Can u sent me a description of the thing?_

_Xisumavoid: The thing?_

_Evil-Xisumavoid: The black goop_

_Xisumavoid: uh it's black and goopy_

_Evil-Xisumavoid:..._

_Evil-Xisumavoid: Is it contagious, if so how. And who and what alters are affected?_

_Xisumavoid: Yes, but only by touch. Renbob (Rendog) Wizard Scar (GoodTimesWIthScar) and Helsknight (Welsknight) are affected. No one else that I know of._

_Xisumavoid: And may I ask, who are those players? I was with the watchers at one point, I might recognize them._

_Evil-Xisumavoid: Right NPG told Grumbot not to tell you. This seems like a terrible time but okay_

_Evil-Xisumavoid: Taurtis_

_Xisumavoid: WHAT?_

_Evil-Xisumavoid: The non-evil one. There' s two. Long story._

_Xisumavoid: Okay, and who's the other?_

_Evil-Xisumavoid: Oh right_

_Evil-Xisumavoid: That's classified. You'll find out later_


	15. Homesick

Grian sat on a stray chest, watching as Npg and Ex talked about the looming threat on Hermitcraft. A lot was on his mind, with ET out there, the strange sickness at home, and on top of it all: Npg's comment.

The android had been right. Grian had lost his passion for building rustic houses when he'd brought him to life. Grian couldn't remember the last time he'd actually built one. Sure, his house in Hermitville had the same palette, but the shape and overall style was a bit different. And now, glancing around to see the vast expanse of near-perfect houses, he wasn't sure what to feel. Nostalgia? Regret?

But he did know he was proud of Npg. Even though Grian didn't know how to fix him, even though Grian had left him all alone, Npg had worked to be better. When faced with the challenge of his body effectively breaking down, he'd stood up again, becoming stronger.

It almost made Grian wonder if his resilience really was trapped inside Npg.

"Anxiety is only prominent if you let it be. You can't push it away, but you can find healthy distractions, such as taking a walk, or finding something to look forward to. As long as you take some time to say 'I am here, and I am okay', you'll find yourself happier."

Joe's words flashed through his head, reassuring him that he was healing in his own way. No reason to fret over this.

______________________

"Black and goopy?" Taurtis asked, looking a little pale.

Ex nodded. "Yeah. Doesn't narrow it down much."

"Well, it might not narrow it down, but it does explain a lot."

Grian sat up. "What do you mean?"

Taurtis shuffled his feet. "Shortly before ET popped up as an evil alter, I think I came into contact with the same substance that's infected Hermitcraft."

"So you think ET's in the same position as Wels, Ren, and Scar?" Ex asked. "That does make sense. Despite everything, us evil alters still have a strong connection to our hosts. Even after I've transitioned into a player, I'm still connected to Xisuma."

"Then the simplest solution is to find a cure. And that just puts us back at square one." Grian stated.

Ex shrugged. "If the virus is specifically affecting alters, then it's not gonna be easy to just 'cure'. To my knowledge, alters aren't technically players. But that raises the question: What even are we?"

Npg lanced up from where he was sorting a chest. "Well, Ex and I are host-less so we probably can't answer that question."

Taurtis tapped his chin. "I don't have any alters, so I'm not of any help. Grian?"

"Well uh..." Grian laughed sheepishly. "I do have like twenty others I could ask. Most of them require a costume change to channel though. I could try Hippie Grian, but he's fairly new."

"Try Ariana." Npg suggested, not really paying attention. "She's one of your oldest."

Grian frowned a little. "I'm actually unsure if she needs a costume change or not."

"Or you could bring out Sherlock." Npg added.

"Well I'd need a costume fo-"

Npg interrupted him, closing the chest "Ex's got a black cloak lying around, and I can finger-knit a scarf up real quick."

"You can finger-knit?" Taurtis asked.

Npg opened another chest, digging around and retrieving the earlier mentioned cloak. "Yeah, no clue where the heck I learned it. I was just fiddling with some yarn one day, and figured it out."

Grian tapped his chin. "The cloak and the scarf will have to do. How long until you'll finish the scarf?"

"An hour, give or take." Npg answered, handing Grian the cloak. "So I should start as soon as possible."

"I'll tell Xisuma our plan." Ex pulled out his communicator. "You know, the Hermits really all really miss you Grian. Xisuma grieved for a long time."

Grian smiled sadly, putting on the cloak. "Hopefully, once this is all over, I'll be able to go back to them. I'm just... homesick. Do you know how that feels?"

"Yeah." Ex looked over to Npg with a smile of his own. "I do."


	16. Elementary, Doc Watson

Grian took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

_"I see! The game is afoot!"_

The voice was clear in his head. A warm, fuzzy feeling began to envelop his body, leaving Grian numb. Then the cold came, like ice water dripping down his back, leaving electric tingles in his fingers and toes, slowly pushing him out of his own body as Sherlock took over.

Of course, Grian wasn't able to go to the mindscape. He was the host after all. Instead, the numbness lulled him into a dark, dreamless sleep, only to be awakened once Sherlock was done.

_________________________

"Why hello, yes yes. We have a mystery on our hands, I presume?" Sherlock lifted an eyebrow as he adjusted his scarf accordingly. 

"Uh... Yeah." Ex cleared his throat. Okay, so Grian's alters really were exactly what they sounded like. Sherlock Grian was just... Literally a Sherlock Holmes that looked like Grian. Oookay.

Sherlock nodded to Npg. "Good to see you mate, RG says hi, by the way."

"Oh! How's he doing in the mindspace? I'm guessing he made fronds with Mad Scientist Grian?"

_Mad Scientist Grian?_

"Actually, he's gotten rather close with Gertrude, for some odd reason. They bond over pestering us to buy sand."

_Gertrude?_

"Huh. And how's Ariana and Poultry- ahem." Npg coughed. "Sorry I mean uh the undercover guy."

_Ariana? Poultry? How many alters does this guy have!?_

"Ariana Griande's doing alright, Pickles on the Seafloor is quickly becoming one of her favs to preform. And our undercover guy is taking care of Sally, as usual."

Ex cleared his throat again.

"Ah! Yes! What's the mystery?" Sherlock Grian clapped his hands.

Taurtis quickly explained the situation.

"Hmm. Well the answer is obvious, is it not? This black stuff is some kind of corruption virus at first look, but it's targeting Alters. Or more specifically, it's targeting the part of a player that's split off from them. Perhaps it's a job they've always wanted to have. Maybe it's their 'evil' side. Whatever the case, the corruption on it's basic level, is targeting a player. However, the corruption was purposefully made weak enough to only target a split off piece of a player."

"You... Got all that from 'evil black goop'." Ex blinked.

Sherlock laughed. "What can I say? Overthinking is helpful!"

"I thought thinking was dangerous." Npg snorted, probably some Grian inside joke.

Ex sighed. "Anyways, how do we stop it?"

"Well... It's corruption. Things like that usually work somewhat like a hivemind. In order to stop it, you have to find the source and either destroy it or figure out the source's polar opposite. Use the opposite to dampen the corruption, makes it easier to clean up and contain."

"So," Taurtis summed up. "We need to find ET."

__________________________

I ↸𝙹リ'ℸ ̣ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ 𝙹. I ↸𝙹リ'ℸ ̣. Lᒷℸ ̣ ᒲᒷ 𝙹⚍ℸ ̣.

lᒷℸ ̣ ᒲᒷ 𝙹⚍ℸ ̣.

lᒷℸ ̣ ᒲᒷ 𝙹⚍ℸ ̣ ꖎᒷℸ ̣ ᒲᒷ 𝙹⚍ℸ ̣ ꖎᒷℸ ̣ ᒲᒷ 𝙹⚍ℸ ̣ ꖎᒷℸ ̣ ᒲᒷ 𝙹⚍ℸ ̣

i ↸𝙹リ'ℸ ̣ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ᔑリ|| 𝙹⎓ ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᓭ ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣ ꖎᒷℸ ̣ ᒲᒷ ⊣𝙹

pꖎᒷᔑᓭᒷ

y𝙹⚍ ᔑꖎ∷ᒷᔑ↸|| ᒲᔑ↸ᒷ ᒲᒷ ⍑⚍∷ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᒲ. W⍑ᔑℸ ̣ ᒲ𝙹∷ᒷ ↸𝙹 ||𝙹⚍ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ?

…

i ∷ᒷ⎓⚍ᓭᒷ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ↸𝙹 ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑℸ ̣. T⍑ᔑℸ ̣ 'ᓭ ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣ ⊣𝙹╎リ⊣ ℸ ̣ 𝙹𝙹 ⎓ᔑ∷.

iℸ ̣ 'ᓭ ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣ ᔑ ꖌ╎↸! y𝙹⚍ ᓵᔑリ'ℸ ̣ ᒲᔑꖌᒷ ᒲᒷ ⍑⚍∷ℸ ̣ ᔑ ꖌ╎↸!

i ↸𝙹リ'ℸ ̣ ᓵᔑ∷ᒷ ╎⎓ ╎ℸ ̣ 'ᓭ ᒲᔑ↸ᒷ 𝙹⎓ ᒲᒷℸ ̣ ᔑꖎ ᔑリ↸ ∷ᒷ↸ᓭℸ ̣ 𝙹リᒷ! i-

…

o⍑.

o-𝙹ꖌᔑ||. I'ꖎꖎ ↸𝙹 ╎ℸ ̣ , ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣... D𝙹リ'ℸ ̣ ᒲᔑꖌᒷ ᒲᒷ ⍑⚍∷ℸ ̣ ╎ℸ ̣ , 𝙹ꖌᔑ||?

…

t⍑ᔑリꖌ ||𝙹⚍, i'ꖎꖎ ⊣ᒷℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ╎ℸ ̣ ∷╎⊣⍑ℸ ̣ ᔑ∴ᔑ||.


	17. Taken

ET silently made his way through the forest, looking for anything to distract him from his mission.

Well, might as well pay his debts to a old friend.

Ducking into to hidden area, ET marveled at the memorial, almost guilty that he caused the turn of events in which this was built. This place certainly was a place of power, and not just from the flowers or the end crystal.

It was like a magnet, the magic the exact opposite of his and yet, pulling him in. He laughed to himself. It was funny how ironic this was, with the way magic works.

And yet, the more he thought about it, the more he began to wonder. While the magic in this was similar to alters, it was imbued in a much different way. Under any other circumstances, it would've been impossible. And yet...

He shook his head, thoughts snapping back to his objective. Drowning once again, ET left the memorial and looked around, spotting his goal.

His feet carried him to the base of his structure, ET removing his cloak and unfurling his wings. It was interesting how the littlest thing could make someone switch morals in a moments notice. ET could feel his mind change, fluttering up to the top of the build.

His thoughts snapped back to his old self, tasting bile in his throat as he saw the scene in front of him.

Three Hermits and a robot were talking a few feet away, and a smaller robot was sitting in front of him, watching them. It was too easy. No, this was the way the universe works. It's always easy for the villain, while the hero must work to succeed. That was the way all stories were told, right?

His thoughts snapped again, and without anymore hesitation, he scooped up the tiny robot.

Some part of him must've escaped the moral corruption, because he found himself cradling the small being. His heart dropped at how compliant it was, not questioning anything.

That was the moment the hermits turned around. One of them had drawn their sword, but ET was already gone.

Carefully setting the small bot down, ET let out a sigh.

This was a mess. He just hoped the heroes figured it out soon.

A shiver ran through him, the dark magic seeping into his veins again. Memories blurred, morals shattered, and he pulled up a screen with a chuckle.

Who cared. His main purpose was to create chaos. To spread the darkness through Hermitcraft. He never knew what happened when his memory cut out, but he knew it was important.

He glanced behind him, spotting a small robot. He'd never brought anything back before. Huh.

Whatever, it was just a jumble of metal and redstone, no use focusing on it. He had more important matters to attend to.

He pulled up a screen, and spoke only once.

"Wizard Scar, I have one job for you. Recruit Beesuma."


	18. Downhill

Mumbo dropped to his knees in utter shock.

No, no he had to be dreaming. He was dreaming, right?

Mumbo took a shaky breath and put a hand to his mouth. He'd just... He just lost Jrumbot, just like that. Gone, taken by the enemy.

He felt sick, his gut churning and threatening to empty itself. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes.

Jrumbot was gone. Missing. Somewhere he'd never be able to find him.

Arms wrapped around him, stirring him from his thoughts.

"WE'LL GET HIM BACK. I PROMISE." Grumbot did his best to comfort his father.

"That guys just... That guy just kidnapped a small child!" Iskall's voice was full of shock. "This guy's a psycho!"

Xisuma, meanwhile, was typing on his communicator, letting EX know what had happened.

Xisumavoid: something happened

Evil-Xisumavoid: tell me

Xisumavoid: Jrumbot was just kidnapped by ET

Evil-Xisumavoid: That's bad. But, we do have some good news

Xisumavoid: We could use some about now

Evil-Xisumavoid: We may have figured out the next course of action

Evil-Xisumavoid: In order to stop the sickness, we have to find the source. That means finding ET.

Xisumavoid: That's news alright, but I wouldn't call it good.

Evil-Xisumavoid: You have a point

Evil-Xisumavoid: For now, just make sure no-one else gets infected

_____________________________

Jrumbot had began to realize that the situation he was in wasn't normal.

At this point, he just wanted to go home. He'd been in this end city for about an hour now, unable to leave the room. He already missed Grumby and Papa. They were probably worried sick.

He was helpless, trapped in this place. He didn't know what was happening, and wasn't sure he wanted to know.

He just wanted to go home.

______________________________

Hels smiled as he walked around the shopping district. It was lush and green, not a block of mycelium in sight. Well, no bother. he had work to do, after all.

Making his way to the hill near the proud Goat Mountain, Hels spotted his victim.

Sure, the sickness only worked on alters, but that wasn't his responsibility. Wizard Scar was in charge of infecting. He on the other hand, was just having fun. Ah, once Beesuma was recruited, things would be more entertaining, with admin commands on their side. For now he just had to make do with a death loop trap.

For other players, that was easier said than done, but once the sun began to set, all of Bdub's attention was on his bed, ready to sleep the night away. That gave Hels plenty of time to set something up.

Perhaps a pit with lava, fully surrounding the bed. Yeah that would do nicely. Hels hummed to himself as he danced around the sleeping hermit, setting the trap up. He stood back when he finished, sitting on a shulker with a lever by his side.

His favorite part would have to be the obsidian trick. Encasing the bed in obsidian and adding torches would force the player to spawn on a specific block upon waking up. Thanks to the obsidian, Bdubs wouldn't be able to break his bed and escape to spawn island. He'd be right where Hels wanted him.

The night passed quickly, and right on cue, Bdubs appeared on the exact block Hels wanted him on.

The panic was fun to watch, Bdubs frantically trying to figure out what was going on.

"Wha-?! What's going- Wha?" Bdubs spotted Hels, looking nervous.

Hels laughed. "You know, I was bored and you were an easy target. I hope there's no hard feelings."

By now, Bdubs had figured out the trap. The fear settled in, the builder looking terrified.

"Of course, there's no use waiting. Hope you like lava!" And with that, Hels pulled the lever.

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Keralis: Oh no!!! Bubbles!!

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Joehillssays: This is bad

ZombieCleo: Poor BDubs

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Docm77: I'm gonna try to rescue him

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Iskall85: Try dropping him a fire res

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Stressmonster: Would he be able to drink it time?

Bdoubleo100 tried to swim in lava

Docm77: one way to find out


	19. Complications

"Guys, we have an issue." Iskall's voice was tense and worried, a hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "Scar found us."

Xisuma glanced over the edge of the build to where Iskall was looking.

Wizard Scar was standing on the ground glancing up at them. He had a staff at his side, white crystals swirling in the core. But that wasn't what stuck out to Xisuma. 

Scar looked worried.

But it wasn't a "this is a big build how do I climb it" worry, it was something different.

The look on his face...

Xisuma had only caught a glance of ET's face when he'd abducted Jrumbot, but the expression had been the same. A mix of guilt, anger, worry, and hope of all things.

He frowned, remembering his time when he was abducted by ET. The guy had acted very differently then, but it was possible that that this ET just felt bad about kidnapping a child. Everyone always has some kind of moral compass after all.

But Xisuma couldn't shake the feeling. It was almost as if-

His thoughts were interrupted by rapid beeping from his communicator.

"Guys, Bdubs' stuck in a death loop, looks like Doc's gonna try to help him." Xisuma winced. "That might be Hels, he has an affinity for lava and pit traps."

"At least we know his whereabouts. Ren's still nowhere to be found." Iskall moved away from the edge, a nervous tone making it's way into his voice. "Scar's started climbing the vines."

"What? Oh of course, a terraformer obviously has expertise with that kind of thing." Xisuma put his communicator away. "We need to find another place, and quick."

He glanced over to Grumbot who was comforting Mumbo. He couldn't imagine what Mumbo felt, losing his son. They'd just gotten some hope from learning Grian was alive, only for it to be squashed by Jrumbot's abduction.

Xisuma walked over, and put a hand on Mumbo's shoulder. "We have to leave, this place has been compromised."

"I'm gonna slice off these vines here, that should buy us some time." Iskall quickly did a few expert slices, and an irritated "oof" was heard from below. "What place should we go. There isn't many tall bases around here, aside form my tree. But my tree's already been compromised."

"IF WE CUT THROUGH THE NETHER, ME MIGHT BE ABLE TO MAKE IT TO TANGO'S." Grumbot suggested.

"It's worth a shot, and if we don't make it, False and Zed are both next door." Xisuma nodded.

"We better hurry then." Mumbo rubbed the tears out of his eyes. "To Tango's it is."

__________________________________

"Okay, so we have two options. Go into Hermitcraft unprepared and risk getting infected ourselves, or interrogate Sam." Ex said, addressing the three players around him.

Taurtis and Grian shared looks. Grian laughed nervously. "Hard choice for me and Taurtis."

"Let me guess, you two and bunny boy have a history."

"Yep."

Ex sighed. "Unfortunately, that's our best bet. If we charge into Hermitcraft now, we won't know what we're up against. Sam might have some useful information."

"Yeah, but Sam also has Admin powers and a nasty grudge against me specifically." Grian answered.

Npg glanced up from where he was tending to some flowers. "Exy has a point, you've got a better bet with this Sam guy."

Taurtis sighed. "Yeah, I have to agree with Npg and Ex. Sam might be a bit crazy, but I might be able to talk to him."

"Not you, Sam still thinks you're dead. And if you're 'dead', we have to do Plan B." Grian said bluntly.

"And what would be Plan B?" Ex asked.

A few thorny vines popped up around Grian's feet. "I dress up as Taurtis, and let Sam kidnap me again."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I know the Murder Squad are readying their baseball bats, I'll make this short.
> 
> I am feeling much better now, I've been sick all week which caused a lot of delays in a lot of stuff. FoF is back on schedule (hopefully) so no worries! I've finally gotten a sense of what the chain of events will be for the book, so writing from here should be smooth sailing.
> 
> And again, I won't be hurting Jrumbot for now. I do have plans for his character, but I can assure you he will be fine. For now, he'll chill in that end city with ET, feel free to give him blankets and stuff.
> 
> Lastly, from here the chapters may get a little shorter, because High School is picking up the pace when it comes to work. That and the fact that Writetober is a priority right now (not a priority over school, don't worry. just a priority)
> 
> Stay safe my fellow Seekers!
> 
> ~Luna


	20. Refuge + Regrets

Both Tango's and False's bases had been compromised.

False had been in hand to hand combat with Ren, shouting to the passing Hermits that she'd be fine. Tango had been dancing around the two, shooting Ren when he could.

So the four moved on, quickly swooping down to where Zedaph lived.

Xisuma quickly knocked on the door, answered quickly by Zed, who held a potion in one hand and a wad of sheep wool in the other. 

"Come in, come in. Hurry!" Zed ushered them inside, closing the door behind them. "Mind the security trap, watch your step."

He led the group to a small seating area he'd built. "Sit down, you guys look tired. Tell me what happened."

As Iskall explained, Xisuma pulled out his communicator to message Ex. Whatever plan his brother had, he was keeping the details secret.

"That jerk took Jrumbot!?" Zedaph exclaimed. "What a nightmare, we've gotta get him back!"

"That's the problem." Mumbo fidgeted. "We don't know where ET took him."

Zed hummed for a second. "Villain bases are usually in end cities or the nether, at least in cliches. And I have kinda made friends with the void-"

"Wait you what?"

"Yeah I did Xisuma, no big deal. Anyways, there's probably a way for different server voids to communicate, right?"

Xisuma paused. "That's likely."

"Well it's worth a try then!" Zed sprinted over to his garbage chute, climbing down the ladder. "You guys coming?"

Grumbot, Iskall, and Mumbo opted to stay on the top and look down, while Xisuma joined Zed in the basement.

"So, you're the void expert, what do we do?" Zed turned to Xisuma.

Xisuma put a hand over the missing block, tendrils of darkness leaping up to lick at his fingers. "I'm gonna go in, don't panic. The over world void is usually the hardest to talk with, so I might rake a while."

"Alright." Zed took a step back as Xisuma jumped right in, without warning. "Welp there he goes."

"So all we can do now is wait, right?" Iskall asked.

Grumbot nodded. "WAIT AND WORRY."

___________________

Grian cringed when he looked in the mirror. In order to pull it off, he and Taurtis had to swap clothes and boy did this bring back some memories.

Sighing, Grian left the bathroom and was greeted by Taurtis in his red sweater. Yeah, red was not his color. Blue wasn't Grian's color either. It was weird.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Npg asked. "You created me after High School, so I have those memories. I know what you went through."

"Yeah. I have to do this. Getting the info should be easy, the only issue is getting out. But Ex has the covered, right?"

Ex nodded. "Sorta. I have a plan, but I can't confirm it until you've been 'kidnapped'."

Taurtis pulled Grian into a hug. "Hint for the Tauritos: the bag's easier to swallow if you roll it up."

Grian smiled. "Thanks. I'll remember that."

___________________

Tango landed another shot on Ren, ducking as he turned and swung his sword at Tango's head.

"Go find Impulse and get to Zed's, I'll keep Ren busy!" False said, getting anther slice in. "I'll be fine!"

Tango nodded worriedly. "Good luck."

He jumped off the tower, quickly heading to where he'd spotted Impulse earlier.

His communicator dinged.

_Falsesymmetry fell from a high place whilst trying to escape Rendog_

_Rendog was blown up by Creeper_

_Falsesymmetry: Guys! The alters can't kill mobs!_

_Cubfan135: That mean's Zed's place is safe. Everyone head there!_

_Zedaph: We've got plenty of room! Doc, Bdubs hasn't died again, did everything go well?_

_Docm77: Bdubs got some retained burns, so I'm patching those up. Hels disappeared as soon as I got the fire res in. Keep an eye out!_

_Falsesymmetry: We will_


	21. Corruption

Something felt wrong.

Something felt very wring.

Ren had just been floating in nothingness, waiting for Renbob to finish with his duties. Ren had gone under and left a gardening project to the alter, not worried about anything.

But something woke him up. Something felt off.

Ren wasn't sure what has happened, but when he opened his eyes, he was in the mindscape.

Well, he was in a mindscape. It certainly wasn't his own.

But... How???

Ren glanced around, finding Scar and Wels nearby, both in the same position as him. None of them had any clue what was going on, aside from Wels.

"All I know is that Renbob passed out, and when I tried to carry him to a bed, I passed out too." Wels glanced around. "I think Hels took over."

"That last thing I remember is letting Wizard Scar free to work on the magical village behind Larry." Scar added.

Ren hummed for a sec. "Well dudes, all I can remember is letting Renbob out. So we have no leads."

"At least you guys remember what happened to you."

Wels spun around, drawing his sword. Behind them, standing calmly, was ET.

Scar narrowed his eyes. "What did you do to us?"

ET put his hands up defensively. "That's what I wanna know! I've been trapped here for about a year, only let out to do certain tasks. I have no memory when I'm let out, so I'm unable to figure anything out."

"And who should we believe you?" Ren took a wary step back.

ET sighed. "You have no reason to. There's something terribly wrong with my code, and it would be in your best interest to not trust me."

Wels frowned. "Why would you want someone to not trust you?"

"You've met my other side, you should know."

"Wait, there's two ET's?" Scar asked.

ET nodded. "Yeah, sorta. I dunno if we're the same person or not, cause if we are then you guys are in trouble."

"Okay, let me get this straight. You are stuck here while your other side is causing havoc. You are only able to go out for certain things but when you do you lose your memories. You don't even trust yourself."

ET nodded. "I don't even know where we are. This isn't Taurtis' mindscape. I don't think it's any of your either. Also, you guys are players, so even if this was one of your mindscapes, you still shouldn't be here."

Wels though for a moment. "Well, we sorta have no choice but to stick together, whether we want to or not."

Scar nodded. "Anyways, if this is a mindscape, how do we get out?"

ET shrugged. "The only way out is to find Hels, but I'm unsure how to get there."

"Oh!" Wels perked up. "I do! I had an alter, Helsknight, who wouldn't keep his mouth shut. I may be able to get us there."

Scar nodded. "If we get there, I may be able to find Badtimes. Thanks to his connection to the vex, he probably knows how to get us out of here."

ET swept an arm in front of him with a non-threatening smile. "Well, lead the way."


	22. Together

"If we're not back in a week, assume the worst." Grian said, addressing Ex.

Ex nodded. "Good luck."

Grian took a deep breath. Taurtis stood next to him, wearing his sweater. They had come up with an escape plan and everything, the main thing to focus on was to survive.

Holding Taurtis' hand, Grian jumped through the portal in front of him.

Singleplayer worlds didn't ever have server islands, there was no need.

________________

The portal dumped them exactly where they wanted to be.

Just outside Sam's apartment.

"Good luck Grian, I've got your back, okay?" Taurtis reassured him.

Grian nodded. "I can do this. Let's just get it over with."

"Taurtis? Grian? Oh what a lovely coincidence!"

________________

Xisuma's attempt with communicating with the void was to no avail, and by the time he'd given up, most everyone had gathered in the bunker.

Doc and Bdubs were sitting in a corner as Doc fussed over the permanent burn marks Bdubs now possessed. Stress was aiding him as Bdubs complained that he was fine. Keralis watched worriedly from a few feet away.

Etho, Beef, and Jevin were chatting quietly in another area.

False was positioned by the door, keeping an eye out for intruders.

xB and Hypno were discussing the corruption with Cub, xB and Cub comparing notes.

Grumbot and Mumbo were sorting out their feelings.

Iskall was doing a headcount. "That's almost everyone, we're missing Joe, Cleo-"

"And Tango and Impy!" Zed said worriedly. He'd been pacing for the last half an hour, keeping near the security button. "Oh I hope they're okay. What if they got caught!?"

Xisuma led Zed over to where TFC was reading a book. TFC took the cue and pulled Zed into a hug, comforting the small inventor.

Then False piped up. "It's Cleo. She's alone, and looks normal. Joe isn't with her though. Oh! She's wounded!"

"Well let her in then!" Iskall said, making his way over.

False opened the door, Cleo limping inside.

"There was a fight, Joe went back for Impulse and Tango." Cleo explained.

Stress jumped up and ran over. "That looks bad love, let's get that patched up."

Cleo winced as she sat down, Stress fretting over her. "Hels had impulse cornered, and Tango got his legs caught under some rubble. I wanted to help but Joe insisted, and you know how convincing he can be."

Almost on cue, a message entered the chat.

Helsknight was slain by Iron Golem whilst fighting Joehillssays

"Way to go Joe!" Zed cheered.

Cleo gave a sigh of relief. "Thank the heavens, let's hope he gets the two back safe."

"I'll go out and help, do you know his coords?" Iskalla sked.

"The fight's over by that half-finished cliff in the shopping district."

Iskall nodded. "False, if I don't knock exactly four times when I get back, assume I'm infected."

"Gotcha."

____________________

Everything looked fuzzy. Impulse registered the sounds from a golem nearby, and a bit of fighting, but not much else.

There were arms lifting him up, carrying him over to where Tango was trapped.

Whoever had been carrying him conversed with Tango briefly. Impulse heard the sound of rocks being moved.

The noise continued for a while, and the next time someone spoke, Impulse understood what they were saying.

It was Joe, asking Tango how his legs felt. Tango answered saying that they hurt, but he didn't think they were broken. Some other footsteps drew nearer, and Impulse lifted his head, catching sight of Iskall's green sweatshirt.

"Iskall, can you carry Impulse?"

"On it." Iskall picked him up. Impulse saw Joe help Tango limp forward, and the four began the trek to Zed's.


	23. Hints

Sam threw his arms around Grian. "Aw! I missed you Taurtis! We're gonna have so much fun!"

Grian laughed nervously. "Y-yeah. Fun."

"Well, c'mon then!" Sam grabbed Grian's hand and dashed off, Taurtis staying behind like he'd promised.

The two had gone over a few things before beginning the mission. One, Taurtis had to stay behind and keep a fair distance. Two, Taurtis was not to interfere unless it was an emergency. And three, the goal was to find out what Sam knew about the current situation, whatever it took.

Grian stopped to catch his breath as Sam stopped outside his apartment. Sam unlocked the door before typing something on his phone.

When Grian saw the message, he paled. Since when was Sam able to use admin commands?

"O-oh you're an um... Admin?" He stuttered.

Sam grinned. "Yep! This nice guy rewarded me with it after I gave him a hand."

Grian followed Sam into the building. "So this guy... What did he want from you?"

"Hacking, convincing, a few different things. He had this great idea to slip a hacking crystal into the HC server, letting me communicate and convince our victim to do our dirty work."

Grian flinched, but continued. "What about after that?"

Sam laughed. "He did need a small hand with the metamorphosis, as well as some information I was able to easily get."

"Metamorphosis?"

"Yep! Forcefully activating stagnant DNA is never easy, especially when you're doing it in your own code." Sam opened a cabinet and handed Grian a bag. "Here, you're hungry."

Not a question, just "you're hungry." Grian understood what Sam was hinting at and opened the bag, wrinkling his nose at the contents. "Stagnant DNA?"

"Yep! Fairy or something, I forgot. You gonna eat those?"

Grian quickly shoved some in his mouth and nodded. The Tauritos tasted as yucky as ever, though Grian realized it didn't taste half as bad as dried kelp. In fact, eating dried kelp had helped him get used to the taste if anything.

Pushing the thoughts aside, Grian contemplated what he'd just learned. So ET, and consequently Taurtis, had Fae DNA. Stagnant Dna, to be exact. Like... like his. So ET didn't know how to activate it, so he resorted to messing with his code. But why, and how did he find out? Had he been... watching him? No, then ET would've known how to activate it, right?

"So... How did the guy find out he had that Dna?"

"I dunno, but I can say he always was talking to himself. Always things about his purpose and something about player souls." Sam shrugged.

Grian kept a mental note of what Sam was telling him. This stuff had to be important.

_________________

"Are you sure it'll work?" Ex asked.

Npg nodded, holding out his hand. "One way to find out."

Ex too a deep breath and grabbed Npg's hand.

And promptly crumpled to the ground, limp as a ragdoll.

__________________

Four knocks. No more, no less.

"Oh thank herobrine." False opened the door. "Come in, quickly. That's everyone, right? We're all here?"

"Yes." Xisuma confirmed.

"Impy! Tango!" Zed ran over. "Thank goodness you guys are okay! What happened?"

Iskall set down Impulse, as Stress ran over and checked him over. "Ouch, that's a bad concussion love. Falsey, can you get me the first aid kit?"

False nodded, retrieving it. Joe helped Tango sit down. "Us three got cornered by Hels, and Joe managed to convince Cleo to escape. I tried to make an iron golem but Helsknight got to me and trapped me under some rubble. He had Impulse cornered when Joe grabbed the shears I'd dropped and sheared the pumpkin last-second. It was awesome."

"It's wasn't that heroic." Joe shrugged. "Anyways, I'm going back out. I've got a bunch of pups at Jurassic Bark that will come in handy."

"Are you sure? That's a good idea but-"

"I'll be fine! Jurassic Bark isn't that far away if you have enough enderpearls." Joe insisted. "I'll be back before sundown."

_____________________

Joe took a deep breath as he shot one last ender pearl, landing on the beach at Jurassic Bark. He wasn't lying, the dogs were important, but he had to do something first.

Joe kneeled down next to the waves, and placed his hands in the water with a small sigh of relief. He wrapped the handles of his tools with cloth for a reason. Same with his armour, painting a light coat of gold on the inside.

Shaking his head, Joe stood up and walked over to the pups who greeted him happily. He smiled as they rubbed against him, snarling at any nearby mobs.

Joe chuckled. "Y'all ready for an adventure?"


	24. Tricks and Voices

"Joe's back!" False sheathed her sword, and opened the door for the poet.

Joe sat a few down outside before coming in and letting the rest roam free. One wandered over to Team ZIT, curling up by Impulse.

"This is all of them, we should be good on defense for now." Joe said, scritching one of the pups.

Xisuma nodded absentmindedly, typing away at his communicator. He was currently in a very strange conversation with Ex.

_Evil Xisumavoid: X do I still have alter code?_

_Xisumavoid: Yes, you should. Right? Why are you asking?_

_Evil Xisumavoid: How again did I get my body?_

_Xisumavoid: Um... The code gave it to you, so you are technically possessing yourself. What are you planning?_

_Evil Xisumavoid: If I by any chance died, would I go back into your head?_

_Xisumavoid: No, but it would be possible under the right circumstances. Ex, what are you planning?_

_Evil Xisumavoid: Okay thanks_

_Xisumavoid: Ex! What are you planning?!_

_Evil Xisumavoid: Can't say right now. On the other hand, I did a bit of thinking. There has to be a way to snap the corrupted players back to reality, at least temporarily. I'm sure you can figure something out._

_Xisumavoid: Okay then._

Xisuma sighed and put his communicator away. He didn't like the sound of what his brother was planning, but it's not like he could stop him. On the other hand, Ex was on to something. If they could bring Ren, Scar, or Wels back from their sleep, that would give them a chance to kick the alters back into the mindspace, if only temporarily.

But to figure out how...

_______________________

Wels focused on the air around him. He'd turn a few steps occasionally, sometimes going in circles, but that was just the way to get to Hels. Follow the warm air's path exactly, step one foot in the wrong direction and you'd have to start again.

He knew he was getting close when the air began to heat up more and more. "We're almost there." He assured the three following him.

Soon enough, when Wels placed his foot down, it came into contact with netherrack. A few steps more and they were in Hels, the broken nether.

______________

"Out of the three, who's the worst at PvP?" Cub asked.

Joe paused. "It would have to be Renbob. Scar's got magic on his side, and Hels is Hels."

"So we lure him in here, drop him in a pit, and pray we can bring Rendog back." Zed clarified.

"That's the plan."

_______________

Npg set Ex's body down onto the bed, sitting down in a chair next to it.

_It worked._

_You bonked your head pretty badly when you fell but I patched it up._

_But all that aside, it worked._

_________________

"-though I'm surprised the crystal ended up in the right book. I dunno how ET knew it was there, I did ask him. He never gave me an answer."

Grian sat up from where he was lying on a couch. He'd been subtly questioning Sam for a while now, but to no avail. "What do you know about that book?

"I do know that book did not spawn in. It was put there by someone in another server or something. Maybe ET put it there, maybe he didn't."

Gears turned in his head. It can't have been ET, if he's put the book there he'd know it's contents and would've known about his Dna earlier. He also would've gone ahead and put that crystal with it in the first place. That means there might be a third party involved.

And whatever this third party was, it knew about the Fae. But the question was, who or what was that mystery character anyways?

Grian shook his head. He'd gotten about as much info out of Sam as he could. Now for the real challenge.

Leaving.


	25. Guilt

The Broken Nether. A place of chaos and calm, a nether-like place that was as shattered as the farlands.

Badtimes had told him about it, describing it like it was some kind of safe haven. And honestly, despite the initial feeling of destruction, Scar could understand him. Hels was surprisingly quiet, the only sounds being the flow of lava.

"We're here." Wels sounded nervous, but confident. "Now to find Badtimes?"

Scar nodded, glancing around. "I can feel the vex magic already, it's strongest in that direction." He pointed east, towards a floating chunk of land, riddled with caves and holes.

"Onwards, my fellow brethren!" Ren said optimistically. "We got this!"

_________________

ET had been silent, not saying a word as they journeyed through Hels. But when he finally spoke, it was a question that had Scar pause for a moment.

"What's vex? And are they really magic? I thought magic didn't exist naturally, aside from admin and watcher magic."

"Well..." Scar chose his words carefully. "The vex are an ancient type of mob, they're mischievous spirits that pop out from time to time and just create chaos in general. If you make a deal with them, they have the right to take over your body for their benefit. That's what resulted in Badtimes' creation."

Ren frowned. "That's a pretty odd way fro an alter to appear, if you ask me."

"Well Wels accidentally cloned himself." Scar replied.

Wels shrugged. "Touche."

ET twiddled his thumbs awkwardly. "What about your magic?"

Scar cocked his head. "My magic?"

"Yeah, WIzard Scar."

Scar paused again. Wizard Scar was... harder to explain.

__________________________

Scar had gotten increasingly curious after he'd learned of Grian's powers. He went to the vex for more information, and only got a small tidbit that he'd tossed aside.

"There's lots of magic, but only a select few who can harness it." They'd said. "Ever wondered why we specifically chose you and Cub?"

Then Grian had given his life for Xisuma, and they'd all moved onto their seventh world. Scar began helping build the grave for the Fae, and in doing so, the vexes words had come back to him. And he'd began to wonder.

It started out with some experiments with lapis, bone meal, and obsidian, three items that were commonly magical, but only able to be used for a couple purposes.

At one point, he wasn't sure when, but Scar had somehow made his first crystal. It was barely magic at all, but it was new. To everyone else it was stained glass, barely extraordinary. But Scar could feel the magic locked inside.

Scar then made two more. One, he asked Mumbo to smash, with no effect.

The other he'd shattered privately, earning a small explosion that resulted in his base coming to life.

So he kept experimenting, and eventually Wizard Scar came along. He then worked on making other types of crystals, including some beautiful floating ones. Those he'd put around Grian's memorial, happy he'd contributed.

Then the mayoral race came along, and Wizard Scar spent most of his time in Scar's head.

One thing led to another, and he'd called out Wizard Scar to help with some densely magic crystals.

That was when he'd woken up here.

Scar didn't share this openley for a reason. A reason that he knew wasn't his fault. but he still regretted.

Scar had called WIzard Scar to destroy the magic-heavy crystals, especially the tan and brown ones. He'd realized how much they resembled the hacking crystal from last season, the one Doc had described.

He'd feared his curiosity was giving way for history to repeat himself.

And now Scar was worried his fears had been confirmed.

_______________________________

Taurtis sat outside Sam's apartment, eavesdropping on the conversation inside.

He could tell how much Grian hated this, despite it being Grian's idea in the first place. He couldn't imagine how it must've felt in the past, when Grian was forced to do this.

When he'd realized how unstable Sam was, Taurtis had mentally kicked himself for not realizing sooner. Grian had been hurt, their classmates were hurt, and Taurtis had been blinded by his friendship with Sam.

Taurtis had eventually apologised to Grian when they were in Evo, and Grian had given him a smile before accepting his apology.

But Taurtis still wondered, if he'd realized it sooner, if he'd seen how much Sam was hurting Grian, could he have prevented Grian from going through all that in the first place? If he hadn't insisted on driving Grian to the Airport, that fateful Halloween night...

Taurtis shook his head. He had to focus, he needed to be ready for when Grian made his escape.

But that didn't mean he'd ever stopped feeling guilty.

_________________________

Npg sighed wearily. He'd changed. Temporarily of course, but now he realized how exhausted he was.

He sighed as he placed down a bed next to the one Exy's body was on, before plopping down. He'd never gotten tired before, his purpose was to build.

But he'd changed.

For once, Npg was too tired to even think about rustic houses. But, he supposed, that was the other part of him. The new one.

He'd been silent, though Npg had expected that. Neither of them had been in a mindscape for years.

But all Npg wanted to do right now, was sleep.

__________________________

Joe let out a quiet sigh. Most of the Hermits were asleep now, aside from Iskall who was on watch, and Xisuma, who was working. Grumbot was sitting next to a sleeping Mumbo as he refilled his power source with diamonds in preparation for the next day.

Joe himself was sitting cross-legged in a corner, a blanket draped over his knees. Cleo was asleep near him, his pups all curled up around them.

It was a quiet night.

Joe waited for Grumbot and Xisuma to finish, Iskall to far away to notice anything. When the two finally settled down, Joe relaxed, letting the facade fall.

Careful as to not hurt the butterfly wings, Joe lied down and fell asleep.


	26. Equal Exchange

The journey was quiet the rest of the way, the stuffy air calming, in an odd way. Ren found himself stumbling over nether quartz, as he followed Scar and Wels. ET was walking behind him, having being the one with the least experience with difficult terrain.

Soon enough, Scar stopped, calling out into the cavern ahead.

"Badtimes?"

A few seconds passed before a voice returned.

"Scar? How the heck are you here!?!?"

Ren walked forward, peering into the cavern. Sitting criss-cross on the floor, playing cards with a vex, was Badtimes himself. He looked almost identical to Scar, aside from the perfectly mirrored scars. He also had clear blue yes, as opposed to Scar's brightgreen ones. Badtime's hair was also slightly darker.

"Um... To put it short, I have no idea either." Scar answered with a nervous laugh.

Badtimes sighed. "Let me guess: I'm your only hope to get back."

"...yep."

"Well, I've got the time. Explain what you can and I'll see what I can do."

_________________

Zed woke up to find that Joe was already awake. Zed carefully extracted himself from the arms of Tango and Impulse, and walked over.

"Morning watch? Zed asked quietly.

Joe nodded.

After some time, the other Hermits started waking up, Tango and Joe switched places, and Xisuma pulled up his screens for another long day of work.

Mumbo, Grumbot, and Impulse gathered into a corner to brainstorm ideas on how to possibly save the infected hermits.

It wasn't until Cub came over that they got a vague idea.

Cub had speculated that perhaps there was a way he could use the vex to get Scar back.It would take a bit of work, but under the right circumstances, it was possible.

_________________

"There might be a way to get Scar back at least. I'll have to try to get to Cub, but it's possible. As for you three," Badtimes gestured at Wels, Ren, and ET. "There's nothing I can do as of now. But if we can get Scar back to the overworld, he might be able to work with Cub to force you guys back into your own heads."

Scar hesitated. "Are you sure the vex would-"

"Ren and Wels might not be very magical, but the vex might make an exception. Now if you want to get out of here, you'll let me do what I need to do." Badtimes cut him off. "Chaos is happening on the server, and this might be my only chance to communicate with Cub."

__________________

He had one order. Recruit Beesuma.

Wizard Scar had called Hels and Renbob to aid him, and they were standing in the shadows, a good ways away from the bunker.

The time had come to act.

__________________

"They're here." Iskall warned. 

The Hermits scrambled into position. Everyone but Zed, Cub, Xisuma, and Joe dropped down into Zed's storage system. 

Zed was ready at the security button, and Cub stood a good ways away, already channeling what vex magic he could. Xisuma was crouched in a corner with his screens still up, and Joe and his dogs surrounded him for protection.

That's when the door blew up, and it all broke loose.

___________________

One piece of TnT, and it all went downhill.

Renbob had ran in first, Zed bringing his hand down onto the button that dropped him into a pit of baby zombies.

Wizard Scar and Hels were a bit more careful, minding the pit. Zed quick'y began leading the baby zombies into the area he had that would reload the pit. Hels immediately rushed into combat with Joe as Wizard Scar went for Xisuma.

Hels seemed to have at least two brain cells because when the dogs started attacking him, he backed up, drawing them away from Xisuma and Wizard Scar. Wizard Scar and Xisuma were in an awkward type of combat, Xisuma trying to juggle his screens while fighting, as Wizard Scar tried to fight with a strictly long-range weapon.

Zed called up the other fighting hermits, who jumped up and ran into combat with Hels. By now Renbob had re-entered the bunker, drawing the rest of the fighters away.

Cub had come to the rescue of Xisuma, doing his best to both fight with Wizard SCar and try to contact Badtimes.

The chaos must've been enough because Cub was able to reach out to Badtimes, and through him, Scar.

Dropping his weapon, Cub reached a hand out and grabbed Wizard Scar's wrist, using his connection with Scar to recall the alter. Through Hels and the Vex, he focused on Scar's soul, trying to wake the hermit.

However, he lost his focus on Xisuma and WIzard Scar managed to dart out a hand and grab Xisuma's mask.

______________________

He didn't have his hold on Scar for much longer, but he managed to pass his remaining energy onto Beesuma, calling him out. Twisting his face into a crooked grin, he laughed up at Cub.

A new voice, one raspy and non human, came out.

"An eye for an eye. Wizard Scar may fall, but Wasp will take his place."

_______________________

Ren let out a cheer as Scar and Badtimes disappeared, hopefully going back to where they belonged.

ET then stiffened. "Some's here. Someone new."

Wels glanced behind him. "In Hels or the mindscape?"

"The mindscape."

It only took seconds to get back to the mindscape, as easy as closing his eyes and taking three steps backwards.

The three glanced around the mindscape, looking for the stranger.

Ren paled as his eyes fell on a slumped over figure on the bedrock. "Oh no." His voice came oit as a worried whisper.

Xisuma winced as he sat up. "Wh-where am I?"


	27. Loose Ends

...

Scar winced, the light almost blinding compared to that mindscape he's been in.

Wait.

He squinted, making out a few figures standing over him. Cub, Zed, and Stress.

"Scar, can you hear us?"

Oh yeah, Stress was speaking.

Scar managed a weak reply, feeling seeping back into his bones. A dull ache resided in every cell of his body, giving him a minor headache and leaving him exhausted.

Cub helped sit him up, Zed supporting his other side as they moved him off the floor and onto a bed.

"Wh-what happened?" Scar asked, his voice slurring a bit from fatigue.

"Our theory is that there's a virus of some sort that only affects alter egos, and it's spreading."

Scar bit his lip. "That's what I, Wels, and Ren figured. We were stuck in an unfamiliar mindscape, and the only reason we were able to escape was because Wels was able to lead us to the Hels dimension."

"And you were able to work with Badtimes and the vex, right?" Cub asked. "The vex had given me a tip which was why I was able to pull you back into control of your own body. Speaking of..."

Scar sighed. "Wizard Scar is recovering in my mindscape, as far as I know, it seems like this virus or corruption or whatever has completely left me. Did Xisuma figure anything out?"

Guilty and nervous looks met him from around the room.

Grumbot was the only one who dared break the bad news. "WHEN CUB SAVED YOU, THE INFECTION TOOK OVER XISUMA."

"Wh-What!?"

"Remember guys, we had no way of knowing that could happen. What we need to figure out how how to reverse it." Joe spoke quickly and confidently. "Xisuma has a Hels counterpart, we all know that. Perhaps we could try to contact him."

Grumbot then perked up. "WAIT, WHEN I WAS FIRST ACTIVATED, I ENDED UP BEING CALL BUDDIES WITH ANOTHER ROBOT WHO ASKED ME TO TELL EGG-SUMA THAT HIS BROTHER WAS RETURNING. IS THIS THE HELS COUNTERPART YOU ARE TALING ABOUT?"

Joe nodded.

Grumbot paused. "I MAY STILL BE ABLE TO CONTACT THE ROBOT. HANG ON."

Quiet suspense rippled through the group as Grumbot's eyes briefly turned blue.

"WAIT- LOW BATTERY."

Mumbo let out an exasperated chuckle, handing Grumbot a few diamonds.

Grumbot quickly recharged, resuming the task.

"RH, ARE YOU THERE?"

...

"IS RED X WITH YOU STILL?"

...

"COMPLICATED? YOU SOUND DIFFERENT, IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?"

...

...

...

"I SEE. WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO TAKE A MESSAGE?"

...

"OKAY. BYE."

Grumbot turned to the group.

"RED X WILL RETURN... THERE'S JUST SOME COMPLICATIONS."

___________________

Npg sighed.

_Have you figured it out yet?_

_I haven't been in a mindscape for a long while, okay?_

_Neither have I. Got any information?_

_I can sense them now, I just need a little more time._

_That's not something we have a lot of. Xisuma's been corrupted._

_Oh for the sake of-_

Npg groaned.

_This is giving me a headache._

______________________

Grian panicked as he darted out of the house, frost already spreading around his feet.

The moment Grian had taken a step towards the exit, Sam had been on his feet with a knife in his hand.

Now, Grian and Taurtis were booking it to where the server island was. Anxiety shot through him, making him stumble. What if the thorny roots make him or Taurtis trip? What if that game Sam enough time to catch up? What if-

"Grian, it's now or never!"

Taurtis' shout tore him away from the thoughts. Grian dropped his glamour, unfurling his wings and grabbing Taurtis.

With a strong flap of his wings, Grian was soaring towards the server island, landing swiftly on the top. Sam hadn't repaired the hole Grian had previously made, making is easy for him and Taurtis to drop down.

They leaped though the portal just as Sam appeared on the island.

________________________

It was dark.

Too dark.

He'd woken up somewhere other than that end city.

Just bedrock below him, and an endless expanse of darkness.

It was cold too.

And empty.

Something felt wrong.

Panic bubbled in his chest as he looked down at himself.

What did he... Why was he...

"Hey."

He looked up. Someone was standing in front of him. He looked very similar, despite being much taller. They spoke calmly, only a small edge of fear in their voice.

"My name is Robot Grian. I see you've met my same fate."


	28. Puzzles

Taurtis had been falling for longer than he'd expected.

Shock still enveloped every inch of him, the temporary body he had dissolving in the bitter cold.

What had happened? He wasn't sure.

He realized he'd been screaming. Since when?

Pain flashed through him again, tearing through his mind and only leaving panic.

Then there was no pain, just a dull ache.

A confused voice was the last thing he heard before everything faded away.

______________

Ex wasn't sure where he was exactly, but he did know that he'd gotten sent here by a glitch. Wasn't the first time he'd been void-jumping and ended up somewhere he wasn't supposed to be.

This void was pretty normal, inky blackness all around, bitter air, the screaming-

Wait.

Ex confusedly looked up, only for some glitchy player to crash down in front of him, unconscious.

"...What the-"

_____________

Grian sensed something wrong the moment he stepped into the singleplayer world.

Npg was sitting calmly on a chest in front of the portal.

"Npg?"

"I'm not Npg. I'm Ex."

_____________

Npg was tired.

He was his normal self once again, but he was tired.

The previous day's work had been energy-consuming, even for a dedicated builder like himself.

But he could finally relax.

All it took was some minor channeling, and Ex had taken the reigns.

Npg could finally rest.

______________

Confusion.

That was what he was feeling.

Robot Grian seemed to understand, helping the smaller to shakily stand. "You don't know what happened, do you?"

He shook his head.

RG's face softened a little. "Here, come with me. You should meet the others."

_______________

Joe had been writing in his journal for a while. Taking notes, putting things together...

This corruption was sentient.

He'd heard that voice come from Xisuma, one not human by any means.

It had been a break of character, a warning from the enemy.

Something about Scar's account and the events from the last season made Joe wonder.

Evil Taurtis had likely been infected by this corruption, but in a different way.

From what Scar had said, ET had claimed that he'd lost all memories of the event where he'd been infected. And when he was being used, he couldn't remember a thing.

So on one hand, we have the ET everyone saw, the one who'd caused the tragedy of last season.

But that meant something strange.

ET had implied that he was sometimes not being used.

Almost as if...

Almost as if his body was a host for the corruption.

The hivemind.

Now Joe knew enough about alters to know that they needed a host. Most of the time. He knew about Evil Xisuma's predicament as well.

But ET's case was different.

The hosts had been the ones put in that mindscape.

But ET wasn't a host. He was an alter. Still an alter.

Then... Had the corruption killed his host and taken over?

No, alters were connected to their hosts, Joe knew that.

So the host was still alive somewhere.

Something struck him. An offhand comment when the rescue team had been telling everyone about last season's tragedy.

Joe began scribbling more notes into the journal.

ET had been working with Ex. Or so he thought. Ex had pretended that he was still angry at Xisuma, had played a victim role. Just so that he could manipulate ET into somewhat sabotaging himself.

Ex had supposedly helped in a dying wish.

Alters can't die unless their alters do.

Joe wasn't sure what Ex's goal was, or if he'd achieved it, but one thing was for certain.

Ex knew of ET's plan.

Only two others could've known. Sam, and the host.

Ex was working with the original Taurtis.

Ex was a voidling. He must've been in that end void, ready to save his brother.

Joe's eyes widened as it all clicked.

Ex was ready to save whoever fell into that void, and had the help of Taurtis.

It might've just been a hunch, but Grian's death message had taken abnormally long to register.

A spark of hope lighted in Joe.

There was a chance Grian was alive.


	29. Regrets

summary: scar guilt, joe reveal? void gang make a plan, whoops where's waldo- I mean one of the hermits- oof 

"Wh-what do you mean you're Ex?" Taurtis asked.

The robot sighed. "I mean exactly that. I, as a conscience, is Ex."

"Hang on I-I need a moment." Grian muttered, taking in a few deep breaths. "Too much adrenaline, gimme a sec." The brit sat down, rubbing his eyes.

"What happened?"

"Sam chased us all the way to the server island when we departed." Taurtis answered.

Npg- or Ex- nodded. "Did you figure anything out?"

Grian took a couple more steady breaths. "Some things, yeah. Not as much as I'd liked, but stuff nevertheless."

Ex nodded, helping him up. "Lets discuss this inside."

___________________

"You feeling alright?"

Scar hesitated before shaking his head.

Joe sat down next to him, a notebook in his hands. "You sound worried."

"Yeah, I-" Scar sighed, putting his head in his hands. "I can't help but worry that this was my fault."

Joe frowned. "We both know that's not true."

Scar couldn't meet Joe's eyes. He wanted so badly to talk about his guilt, but a little voice was eating away at him, telling him to keep quiet.

Funny, he knew he should ignore the voice, it would be so easy to. And yet, he couldn't. So he stayed quiet.

Joe rubbed comforting circles in his back. "Whatever reason you're thinking this, it's not true. Even if it was, it was likely an accident. I know you'd never willingly hurt anyone if it was serious."

Joe did have a point.

"And besides, everyone's blaming themselves for one reason or another. Cub, Mumbo, you name em."

"What about you?" Curiosity sparked Scar's interest. Joe hadn't ever really been one to blame himself but...

Joe chuckled sadly. "I blame myself for not helping Grian more. If I had talked to him sooner, then he wouldn't have panicked in Hermitville, and Mumbo wouldn't have gotten sick. And you know the chain of events that caused."

Scar blinked. "You couldn't have known though."

"I know, but I still regret it."

A comfortable silence settled over the two.

It lasted for a while, Jellie bounding over and curling up in Scar's lap.

"...I'm supposed to be the Mayor, everyone will look to me now that Xisuma's corrupted."

"You won't be leading alone, you have Cub and Bdubs."

"I know, but I barely even know what to do. False or Doc probably could lead better than me. So could Stress."

Joe smiled. "You've got a big heart and you have experience with power. Everyone voted you for a reason, and it wasn't just to make the Cowmercial District look pretty."

"You sure? Cause that was the basis for my entire campaign."

"Positive."

...

Scar let out a startled noise as Joe pulled him into a hug.

"These hardships will pass, I promise you."

"...Thanks Joe."

_________________

"So you're Npg's alter now? How does that even work?" Grian asked.

Ex laughed. "I have no idea. And while Npg is in fact my host, I'm still one of Xisuma's alters."

"That's is weird."

"Trust me, I know."

"Anyways-" Taurtis cleared his throat. "Why's you do this? Did something happen to Xisuma?"

Ex nodded. "With what's happening in Hermitcraft, Xisuma was a prime target. I realized that if he did get infected, our enemy would have access to the Whitelist/Blacklist system."

"And they'd know we're still alive thanks to Sam." Taurtis finished. "You and Grian would be locked out of the server."

Ex nodded. "Npg on the other hand, has access to the server, thanks to the fact that only we know he exists."

Grian flinched a little at that. "Don't say that like it's a good thing."

"In our case, it is."

Grian chose to change the subject. "What's your plan then?"

"You two could join me in Npg's head, and we break into the server. As soon as we're there, us three leave Npg's head. Since all three of us are classified as players. we'll die and respawn with our bodies at world spawn. That okay with you two?"

Taurtis and Grian exchanged glances.

"It's our best bet to get in."

Grian sighed and nodded. "Yep, okay with us."

"Now on the other hand, what did you find out with the Bunny Bish?"

"Ohhh yeah." Grian let out a nervous laugh as he remembered what he'd learned.

"Taurtis? You're a Faerie too."

________________

"Cyclops? We have a newbie."

"Is it the child?"

"I think so." Robot Grian answered.

He looked up and saw another one, also similar to him. Though this one, Cyclops, looked much wiser.

Cyclops knelt down. "We are the spirits of machines come to pass. We are alive in the same way as players, despite our beginnings. We are life created in a new way, though a more fragile existence is what we are given." He game him a warm smile. "What's your name, little one?"

Not knowing another way to communicate, he lifted his hands to sign.

_J-R-U-M-B-O-T_


	30. Ideas

Joe took a deep, steady breath. He'd gathered everyone in the bunker to address what he'd discovered.

He cleared his throat and began leading everyone through his thought process. The pieces came together for everyone else, realizations dawning over the group.

Finally, he got to his last point, the one that tied everything together.

"Grian might actually be alive."

And just like that, the spark of hope he had grew into a fire as it spread through everyone else.

Mumbo spoke up, asking what everyone was wondering.

"If he is alive, how do we find him? Do we look at all?"

Joe pondered that for a moment, not sure how to respond. Luckily, Scar was there to take charge.

"Well he'd either back in YHS, or he moved to one of his old worlds to recover. The latter is the most likely option." Scar paused for a second. "Even so, none of us have access to his private worlds. Even so, we still don't know for sure if he's alive."

"ACTUALLY, UM..." Grumbot hesitated, looking nervous.

Mumbo gave him a worried look. "You feeling okay?"

"YEAH IT'S JUST... UM..." Grumbot shook his head. "REMEMBER THAT ROBOT I MENTIONED EARLIER? WHO'S WITH EX?"

Nods rippled through the group as Grumbot continued. "HE TOLD ME SOMETHING, AND THEN MADE ME KEEP IT A SECRET. I THINK I'M ALOWED TO SAY IT NOW THOUGH."

...

"GRIAN ACTUALLY IS ALIVE. A LOT OF WHAT JOE SPECULATED IS ACCURATE. HE IS ALIVE, AND HE IS SAFE AND WELL. I DON'T KNOW MUCH MORE THAN THAT THOUGH."

___________________

"Sorry, I'm a what?"

"A faerie. Like me." Grian went on to explain what he'd learned from Sam.

Ex hummed. "That does explain a few things. Though, should we activate Taurtis' DNA then? Or..."

Grian nodded. "Better sooner than never. We'll have to whip up an XP farm though."

"Do we have enough time?" Taurtis asked.

"Hopefully we do." Ex spoke, standing up. "We should get to work immediately. I'm gonna go back to Npg's mindscape, he'll be happy to help, I'm sure."

And just like that, Ex - well Npg - stumbled a few feet. Then Npg straightened, looking around.

"Building? Are we building a rustic house?"

Grian hopped to his feet. "Not quite, but it's a build nonetheless. Wanna help?"

_________________

Ren paced, trying to figure out a plan. Wels had consoled Xisuma and the three had exchanged information.

But what to do now? The easiest option would be to try and get the vex to help with Badtimes, but unfortunately Badtimes had informed them that the vex were having trouble due to too much magic concentration, whatever that meant.

At least he was helping brainstorm ideas.

Xisuma was adding his own bits of advice and whatnot, but they weren't getting anywhere.

Then Xisuma brought up something interesting.

"Wait, we summoned Impulse to Hermitcraft, remember? Where did we summon him from?"

That grabbed Badtimes attention. "You think he might be from the Nether?"

Xisuma nodded. "The Nether has a connection to Hels, right?"

"Yes, which means we might be able to communicate with him from Hels. Then we can figure stuff out from there."

Wels stood up. "Off to Hels again, then?"

Ren sighed, glancing behind all them.

ET hadn't contributed to the conversation, simply taking to sitting a fair distance from everyone else. Honestly, Ren could understand why. He couldn't imagine the mental battles going on in the Alter's head, but they sure must've been difficult.

"I'll go get him."

Ren walked over to ET and quickly explained the plan. Soon the group was all gathered together, and they once again, began their trek to Hels.


	31. Slumber

"Jrumbot?" Cyclops murmured.

Robot Grian frowned. "You recognize him?"

"Yeah, he's one of Mumbo's. But why specifically him?"

"Perhaps it's because of how young he is?"

Cyclops shook his head. "In that case, wouldn't they have gone for Grumbot?"

"Who?"

"Jrumbot's older brother. They were created around the same time."

"Beta version type?"

"Yep..."

Jrumbot didn't really understand what they were talking about. Tuning the older spirits out, he glanced around the vast expansion of nothingness.

Something was oddly familiar about the place, but Jrumbot couldn't figure out what.

"You probably have a lot of questions, hmm?"

Jrumbot glanced back at Cyclops. They'd finished their conversation and Robot Grian was walking off.

The little bot paused, but nodded.

Cyclops kneeled down. "Where we are right now isn't really a place. It's more of a... mindscape, if you will. A nonexistent place for our consciousness to go when our bodies are gone. Funny enough, it's a lot like the mindscapes alters go to. You know who those are, right?"

Jrumbot nodded.

"Well, if an alter does not have a host to go to, and cannot return to a mindscape, they come here. It's all connected, really. We're much different than alters though. You and I were born from machines, AI, life that wasn't made by the code. Just like alters, our souls came from players, but not in the same way. Since we're not connected to a host, our lives are fragile. If our bodies are destroyed, we have nowhere to go but here."

 _That's really sad._ Jrumbot signed.

"Not really. We always have the option to move on. We're able to surrender our souls to the code, becoming spectators in the process. While our souls are recycled by the code, our consciousness floats around until it finds a new machine or creation. It's a forgiving cycle."

_Does this mean I'm dead?_

Cyclops chuckled. "No, your body is just deactivated. You'd know if you died. You'd regain your past memories, for starters. And your being would look different. Older."

Jrumbot felt a pang of sympathy when the realization hit him. _So, you're dead?_

"You could say that. You really don't have to worry about me. There's not much either of us can do right now." Cyclops reassured him. "But what I can do, is answer any other questions you have."

Jrumbot paused, only one question coming to mind.

_There's a statue of a player at home that looks a lot like Robot Grian. Why?_

Cyclops hesitated before answering.

"That player was who created Robot Grian. Robot Grian was one of us, but after a time became an alter. Recently, he returned here. I'm not sure why though. Grian, his 'creator', is alive and well. It's odd." Cyclops frowned. "Very odd indeed..."

__________________

Renbob didn't need telepathy to tell something was wrong.

Everything felt thick and fuzzy, like he was still half asleep. He could vaguely hear what sounded like... fighting?

No, this wasn't right.

Common sense told him that he should be awake, but what felt like a thick blanket seemed to lull him back to the quiet.

__________________

Taurtis stared at the XP farm Grian had whipped up.

"...I'm scared."

"Oh it's not that dangerous!" Grian skipped over to what he'd described as the 'killing chamber'. "Just stand here, and bam! XP! It's not as efficient as I'd like, but it should do. You'll probably want to AFK for a while, it can get boring."

With a defeated sigh, Taurtis stood in the spot Grian directed him. "Alright, I trust you."

"Great!" Grian's wings puffed up a bit in excitement.

Taurtis snorted. "You look excited."

"You know I'm notoriously bad at redstone. I'm just happy this all works first try! Besides, XP farms are easy once you've built a few." He flicked a switch, turning the machine on. Almost immediately, Taurtis got a faceful of XP. "Oops."

Taurtis coughed. He'd absorbed XP before, everyone has. But getting a faceful? It was really weird, like someone had sprayed perfume in your face. At least it seemed to be edible.

"Well, here I go." Taurtis muttered to himself. He let himself fall into a deep sleep, and everything slowed around him.

_________________

Grian watched as Taurtis went afk. Grian quickly made his way to the spawning chamber, and sat on top to increase the rates.

He found himself humming a familiar tune.

_"Taurtis, Taurtis, you are AFK. I'm gonna take your headphones away! Taurtis, Taurtis, Taurtis AFK. I'm gonna take your headphones away..."_

Grian really did miss Hermitcraft. Sure, he might've only been there for a season, but he'd discovered so much there.

The grass around the farm turned a bit greener, and a single golden buttercup opened it's petals for the first time.


	32. Comfort in the little things

It was silent for a few minuets after Grumbot had confirmed Joe's theory.

Finally, Mumbo broke the silence. "What can we do now?"

"We survive, and try to free our friends in the process." Doc's calm voice rang out. "Starting with Ren."

________________

Grian had forgotten how it felt to be restless.

Sitting on a cobblestone box for who knows how long is pretty boring, and Grian had taken to building random little things in the space he had.

It was a small challenge for himself, putting a ton of random items in a chest and then whatever he pulled out he had ten minutes to build. It helped pass the time, but not by much. At one point he placed down some random blocks and played the floor is lava (minus the lava, of course).

He eventually found himself sitting in a comfy little alcove he'd built, preening his wings. He wondered what kind Taurtis would get. Do all faeries have feathered wings? Or do some have butterfly or maybe beetle wings? What if some had dragon wings?! Grian shook his head at the thought.

He wondered how many other Fae were out there. It wouldn't be a stretch, since faeries do have glamour. Could it be possible there was another faerie in Hermitcraft? No, it was too unlikely.

Grian poked his head out of the little spruce alcove to take a glance at Taurtis.

He was still AFK in the killing chamber, EXP swirling around him. Grian was about to brush it off when he spotted an odd shape on Taurtis' back, under his shirt.

Oh. Oh!

Grian climbed out and glided down, turning off the machine. He then grabbed Taurtis' arms and began vigorously shaking his friend.

Taurtis frowned, tiredly blinking his eyes open. "Wh- Grian?"

"Okay, take off your shirt."

"I- Grian!" Taurtis sputtered.

"Not like that, your wings need room to grow!"

Taurtis snorted. "Okay, okay. I'm guessing this worked?"

"I think so. I'm gonna grab some shears." Grian answered, unfolding his wings again. In a few strong flaps, he was back at the house. After he dug through countless chests, he located the shears and hurried back.

Taurtis was sitting with his legs dangling over the contraption, his blue shirt sitting in his lap. When Grian landed next to him, he was happy to see a small pair of dragonfly wings sitting between Taurtis' shoulder blades.

"So um... What now?" Taurtis asked awkwardly.

Grian racked his brain. "Well, we kinda have to wait for your wings to grow in a bit. I brought the shears so we could cut holes in your shirt for them, but we can't do that until they're about half-size."

"You know a lot about this."

Grian sat down, handing the shears to his friend. "I did mainly go through it on my own. I kinda regret not telling anyone though."

Taurtis frowned. "Why? I'm sure they would've understood."

"That's the thing. I know they'd understand, and when they found out they did. I guess I was paranoid." Grian sighed. "Everyone's so different in Hermitcraft, but that was just how they were born. Or in some cases, how they'd always lived."

"Sounds like a fun group."

"Oh, they're the best." Grian grinned. "Cleo, for starters, is a zombie. No one really knows how she's sentient, not even her, but she just rolls with it. And of course there's Jevin, a slime. Same deal as Cleo. No one knows how, no one really minds. Doc's part creeper, part cyborg. He doesn't like to talk about his past, but underneath his intimidating outside, he's really sweet."

"There's Ren, of course. Part wolf, really sweet, and an amazing storyteller. There's also Stress, I don't know how she's able to adapt so quickly, but she's impeccable to any biome and quite proficient with regular potions. False and Keralis are both great at PvP, though Keralis is more known for his building."

Grian found himself rambling, a warm feeling spreading though him. "And we also have TFC, he's the Grandpa of the server. He's really wise, a genuine veteran. I don't know xB or Hypno that well, nor Beef, but I've heard good things about them." Grian lit up. "I can't forget Joe! He's a poet at heart, and gives great advice. There's also Bdubs, he's the only person on the server with a healthy sleep schedule."

That earned a chuckle from Taurtis.

Smiling, Grian continued. "We've got Team ZIT too. Impulse, Zedaph, and Tango have been close-knit for a long time. All three are insane in their own way. Then there's Concorp."

"Concorp?"

"Yep, Cub and Scar. They apparently have made deals with the Vexes, which means they make chaos every now and then. Both are great builders too. And then we have Wels and Etho. Wels is the most gentlemanly knight I've seen, and Etho is... Well Etho is like me but quiet."

"That sounds terrifying."

"He's great. And then there's Iskall and Mumbo. They were my business partners and probably my closest friends. They both are great at redstone, despite Mumbo being a spoon. And finally there's Xisuma."

Grian sighed. "He's the admin, and I don't know how he does it. Despite his admin duties, he still comes up with amazing builds. And despite all that, he never pushes himself too hard."

Taurtis smiled. "You really miss them."

"Yeah... I hope I can go back to them when this is over. They've probably moved onto their seventh world by now." Grian fidgeted. "I hope they're alright, with the current events, and all."

"They sound like a resilient bunch. I'm sure they're just fine."

Grian shook his head. "Anyways! I've been rambling, sorry."

"No, no it's fine! It was nice, hearing about your family." Taurtis answered.

"Maybe when this is over, you can join me. I can introduce you to everyone and-"

Taurtis laughed. "Oh it's fine, my watcher training isn't over yet, and I plan to watch over Evo in the future."

"Promise to stay in touch though, yeah?"

"Promise."

Grian blinked. "Oh, your wings have grown in a bit."

"That was fast." Taurtis turned to glance at his back.

The dragonfly wings were a mixed shade of amber and purple, reminding him of an Ametrine gem. They buzzed slightly, seemingly aching to move despite not being fully grown. There was a slight metallic sheen to them, reflecting the now setting sun in a way that made them look like they were glowing.

"They're really pretty."

"Thanks."

Silence fell over the two for some time, as the sun fully set.

Eventually, they would have to head back to the house to sleep. But until then, they were free to take a little bit of time to relax.

A soft, perfume smell drifted on the breeze, one Grian recognized. A slight channel of Hippie Grian confirmed the source of the sweet smell. The hint of honey amongst the floral scent was too familiar of him time in the Hippie camp.

Taurtis seemed to notice it too, glancing around. It didn't take long to find where it was coming from.

The field under the XP machine was covered in flowers, many different types and colors mingling together. A slight buzzing gave away the bees that were floating around, taking advantage of the fresh nectar.

With a contented sigh, Grian glanced up at the sky, where the stars began to show.

They were going to be okay.


	33. Initiative

"Guys, I have an idea."

Doc addressed the group gruffly, Scar standing awkwardly behind him.

Zed perked up. "What is it then? Spill."

"Remember Area 77?" Doc asked. "Well, I and Scar had originally created it to study unnatural phenomenon and stuff like aliens or glitches. In doing so, we've both learned quite a bit when it comes to containing this sort of stuff."

"Doccy, what are you implying?" Keralis asked curiously.

Doc began pacing a little. "If we build some sort of containment cell, we might be able to successfully capture Ren or Wels. From there, we might be able to bring them to their senses with enough good stimuli."

Tango frowned. "Stimuli? You're not thinking of-"

"He means trying to help the hermit remember who they are." Scar interjected. "We'd probably have the best chance with Ren. Renbob is naturally anti-violent, so that could be in our favor."

"How would we actually catch him though?" Mumbo questioned. "If the corruption is a hivemind, this won't be that easy."

"Uh... Live bait?" Impulse suggested.

________________

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Impulse asked for the hundredth time..

Zed nodded enthusiastically. "Trust me, unnecessarily complicated stuff is my whole thing. And sheep. I'm sure a distraction will be easy squeezy."

Tango gave him a worried look. "Zed, what if you get hurt like Impulse did? I don't want to lose either of you."

"Tango, Impy, I'll be fine. Worse case scenario, I end up in the containment chamber with Ren. No biggie!" Zed gave them a hug. "I'll be back before you know it."

_________________

Joe ran a hand over the books on the shelf.

A familiar one caught his eye, and he picked it up. Dark blue leather, elegant handwriting, signed anonymous?

He'd almost forgot about this one. He flipped it open curiously, finding a small guide on Nether mobs. Joe smiled as he remembered the pain it was to make, all the deaths in lava were well worth it.

It wasn't often Joe found his own writings in world-spawned bookshelves, but it was a pleasant surprise whenever he did. Most of his writing was in the form of poetry or journals, but a few, such as this one, were straightforward to avoid any confusion.

These only made up a small fraction of the vast library in the worlds code, most books originally written by players. Some were unfinished, accidentally left on a shelf for the code to take hold of. Many were simple singleplayer journals, similar stories of building a base and beating the ender dragon.

Once Joe found a book by someone named Technoblade, a thrilling tale of a war between two farmers. A few months later he'd discovered another work by the same person, this one a journal written during the hardships of war and the authors struggle to take down the government. It wasn't too often Joe found stories or journals like these, reminding him of the servers outside Hermitcraft, the millions of worlds gifted by the code.

Joe placed the book back down, skimming through the shelves again. A though gnawed at his mind, resurfaced by the thoughts of books. That magic book that Grian had found, the one that turned out to be a vessel for an enemy...

He couldn't help but wonder if it was his.

He'd never gotten a good look at it so he couldn't be sure. There were others who'd written stuff on the Fae, the chance of it happening to be his was infinitesimal.

Joe remembered Scar, and how he'd felt guilty about his crystals. Joe supposed he'd felt the same way.

A sigh escaped him, and he walked over to the enchantment table. Setting down a few pieces of lapis and a helmet, he stepped back to watch the magic do it's work.

It was funny, how many things used up normal magic all the time. Potions, enchanting, even endermen. Then there was the types of magic that were rarer, but not always more powerful. Creative, Watcher magic, Admin privilege's, Mods... Fae magic was among these, but it never really got well known. From what Joe guessed, other Fae usually hid like he did.

He wasn't quite sure why he still hadn't told anyone about his heritage, but it's not like he could now.

The most he could do was try to help however he could. He had an idea, a hunch. If his was correct, then he had a lot of preparations to do.

T⍑ᒷ ⍊𝙹╎ᓵᒷᓭ ᔑ∷ᒷ ⊣∷𝙹∴╎リ⊣. 

T⍑ᒷ|| ꖎ╎ᒷ ╎リ ∴ᔑ╎T ̣. 

T⍑ᒷ ᓵꖎ𝙹ᓵꖌ ℸ ̣ ╎ᓵꖌᓭ 𝙹リ. 

T⍑ᒷ||'ꖎꖎ ∴⍑╎ᓭ!¡ᒷ∷ ||𝙹⚍∷ ⎓ᔑℸ ̣ ᒷ.


	34. Planning makes Perfect

The sun was low in the sky, the early morning chill still lingering. Grian fidgeted as he and Taurtis waited for NPG and Ex. 

Finally, Npg exited the main house. "I think it's time to explain the plan I and Ex had."

Taurtis nodded. "Yeah, why exactly are you two sharing a body?"

Npg hesitated. "I don't exactly understand the basics, but I'll explain what I can. You two understand how that black stuff has been capturing and brainwashing Alters, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Ex knew that Xisuma would be a target. That meant ET would have access to the whitelist/blacklist system," Npg continued. "Ex knew that he'd be put on the blacklist so he couldn't re-take over Xisuma's body. So I'm smuggling him in via me."

"If that's the case, what about me?" Taurtis asked. "Would I be on the blacklist for the same reason?"

"Since you're the original host, ET can't blacklist you without blacklisting himself." NPG answered.

Grian frowned. "What about me? ET knows I'm alive, right?"

"Not exactly." Taurtis twiddled his thumbs. "You're not on either the whitelist or blacklist, since you'd been considered dead. Smuggling you and NPG on won't be too hard."

"Either way," NPG finished, "Us three should be able to sneak into Hermitcraft. I'm gonna contact Grumbot about our arrival to see if anyone on their side could mask it."

"Oh! Tango might be able to, Xisuma usually asks him for help when it comes to data packs." Grian added. "If Ex was able to mask his leave with no admin perms and a bit of hacking, I'm sure Tango could manage." Grian added.

Taurtis nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

___________________

_Incoming Transmission._

_Transmission Received. Request to call?_

_Request confirmed._

Grumbot abruptly sat up, excitedly listening for NPG. It had been a while since they'd last talked.

"Grumbot? You there?"

"HI NPG. IT'S BEEN A WHILE."

"Yeah. Grian is returning, by the way. We need help from your side to mask the login notification."

Grumbot nodded, even though NPG couldn't see. "I'M ON IT. GIVE US A DAY CYCLE."

"Good. Ex wants to know how things are on your end? Any updates?"

"ZEDAPH IS LIVE BAIT. WE'RE GONNA TRY TO FREE REN. NOT MUCH ELSE."

"Okay. Well, bye for now."

"BYE."

And the call was over.

____________________

"TANGO? SCAR?"

Scar just about jumped out of his skin. "Uh h-hi Grumbot."

"Hey Grumbot." Tango didn't seem very fazed.

"GRIAN'S COMING TO THE SERVER, SOMEONE NEEDS TO MASK THE CHAT NOTIFICATION."

Scar perked up. "This soon! Oh my gosh he's actually coming home! I'm gonna go tell everyone!"

Tango grinned. "I'll get right on the maskificating. How long do I got?"

"A DAY CYCLE."

"I'll have it done by nightfall."


	35. Bait

A rustle in the trees caught Zed's attention.

He was perched atop the contraption Doc and Scar had built, offering himself up as bait. Recognizing the figure that was hiding, Zed stood up and put on his best smile. He waved his arm and in a cheerful, innocent voice, called Renbob over.

It was instant, Renbob appearing behind him in an instant, tackling him to the ground and covering his mouth. In a sudden fit of panic, Zed bit Renbob's hand who resolved to just shoving his forearm in Zed's mouth.

This was... less than ideal.

Realizing he couldn't do much, Zed relaxed in Renbob's grip. The alter seemed a bit surprised at this, relaxing his own grip for a few seconds.

Zed wasn't good at PvP, but he did know how to wrestle his way out of a sticky situation. Zed swiftly brought his elbow up, connecting it in the area of Renbob's stomach that he knew housed the liver. This sent Renbob reeling, allowing Zed to flip over and kick him off. He scrambled to his feet and climbed back onto the machine, the gears turning in his head.

As expected, Renbob climbed up after him, and grabbed Zed's arm.

Zed a made a split-second decision. He let his weight fall, dragging Renbob into the containment cell with him. He quickly fished the remote out of his pocket, locking them both in and alerting Doc.

Was locking himself in an inescapable cell with an evil version of his friend dumb? Maybe. But it was better than failing to catch Renbob at all, or even getting kidnapped.

Speaking of, Zed glanced over at his inmate.

Renbob was crouched in a corner, glaring at him. The behavior was so unnatural to both Renbob or his host, that it caught Zed off guard. 

Oh.

This wasn't Renbob anymore, was it?

Zed cautiously took a step towards him, and Renbob let out a snarl.

Nope. Definitely not him.

Zed noted this behavior, and sat down in the corner opposite Renbob, settling down as he waited for Doc.

_________________

Joe glanced up at the statue, the power radiating off of it unmistakable.

The memorial was a place of power, magic from all sorts of sources mingling together. He knew his severmates couldn't feel it, but he definitely could.

Taking out his journal, he scribbled down all the different sources and the magic attached.

Then he snuck over to Larry.

Quietly rifling through Scar's chest monster, Joe found the shulker of magic crystals Scar had abandoned.

As he suspected, each crystal captured a different type of magic. How Scar of all hermits managed this was beyond Joe, but he suspected it had to do with Scar's connection to the vex, a species that broke off from the Fae centuries ago.

Comparing the crystals to his notes, he selected a few and placed them in his ender chest.

Under the cover of darkness, he snuck back to the cave of contraptions.

_________________

The portal swirled a vivid blue color, a direct link to Hermitcraft.

Grian glanced over at Npg and Taurtis.

Npg didn't seem fazed, but Taurtis looked nervous. In the past day or so, his wings had fully grown in, as well as his pointed ears. Grian had given him a crash course on the basic spells he knew, such as creating a small sphere of light and of course, glamour.

Still, Taurtis seemed anxious. Grian couldn't blame him.

"You ready?"

"Never will be." Taurtis answered.

And they leapt through the portal.

__________________

_Docm77 went to sleep. Sweet Dreams!_

_Tango Tek went to sleep. Sweet Dreams!_

_Zedaph went to sleep. Sweet Dreams!_

Tango high-fived Doc. "That was genius!"

When hearing about Grian's return, Doc had brought up the really annoying sleeping notifications that happened whenever a player fell asleep.

Since Tango, Doc, and Zed had to stay up anyways becuase of the while baitificating thing, Doc suggested to switch the login notifs to their sleep notifs.

It had worked.

Tango quickly walked over to Grumbot. The robot didn't really need sleep, but he did slightly power off at night, kinda like a screensaver. He gently tapped on the robot's screen, getting his attention.

As to not wake the other with his loud voice, Grumbot gave Tango a thumbs up before quickly doing his part.

An easy message broadcast later, Grumbot had worked out where Npg had logged in. Npg, Grian, and Taurtis were safe for the time being, so Grumbot gave Tango another thumbs up.

Tango hurried back to Doc to relay the message.

"I've got more good news." Doc had whispered after Tango finished. "The trap worked, Renbob's been contained."

"Let's go check it out then!"

__________________

Here is some important information regarding the future of FoF, my upload schedule, and any side projects I have.

https://www.wattpad.com/1022501075-the-blood-god%27s-disciple-story-proposal

Feel free to give feedback on the idea, I read all the comments.


	36. Home?

Grian stumbled out of the portal and onto the grass. Rolling over onto his back, he started up at the sky.

Not two seconds later, Taurtis stumbled out, followed by a metallic thunk that was likely Npg.

"We made it?" Taurtis questioned quietly.

"Yes. I'll get Grumbot know." Npg answered.

Grian sat up and glanced around. They were in a jungle biome, just outside a mesa.

Taurtis helped Grian up. "We should law low, right? Get a small starter base?"

Grian nodded. "The jungle will give us more cover. Hopefully we'll find a cave quickly, we need resources too."

"Rustic house?" Npg asked hopefully.

Grian paused for a second. "Perhaps a rustic hobbit hole? To fit the jungle aesthetic?"

Npg nodded enthusiastically. "Hobbit holes are still rustic. Works for me!"

Taurtis walked forwards a bit, glancing into the deep forest. "We've got a mob risk, you know how dark jungles get."

Grian pushed ahead into the undergrowth. "We should be fine as long as we-" He broke off into a loud gasp, eyes wide and excited. "Parrot!"

A Hyacinth Parrot was chilling in one of the tress, watching them curiously. Grian immediately snatched some seeds from the grass and offered them to the parrot.

Nothing.

Again, Grian gathered up a bunch of seeds.

Still nothing.

"Grian, what are you doing?" Taurtis asked with a small giggle.

Grian pouted as he gathered a full stack of seeds. He glared at the parrot. "I will force feed you seeds until you love me!"

A half a stack of seeds later, and the macaw finally fluttered down to sit on Grian's shoulder.

"What are you going to name it?" Npg asked.

"Hmm.... Professor Beak!" Grian exclaimed. The bird chirped, and Grian cooed, scratching it's feathers. "You're such a pesky bird, aren't you? Pesssssky bird!"

__________

Multiple distractions later, the trio finally settled on a small cliffside to make their base. Morning had come by the time Npg and Grian had somewhat finished.

"Hey Npg?"

"Yeah?"

Taurtis hummed. "You said that Ex had a plan on how to get his body back, right?"

"Oh yeah. I'll ask him real quick." Npg paused for a second.

"..."

"He says that his body will eventually die in the singleplayer and will respawn at the nearest spawn point. So probably the bed out front."

Taurtis shrugged. "I guess that works out?"

"A little help Npg?" Grian asked as he struggled with clearing away the vegetation in the back. The last bit of work they had was to put in a back wall, which meant clearing out the plants in the back.

Npg hurried over and the two tugged at the vines together.

When a big clump came off, light filtered through the gap.

The three players exchanged glances. Taurtis came over and they all grabbed a section of the vines.

It came off easily with three people working, revealing a hidden garden. Naturally spawned in and surrounded by cliffs.

A peaceful clearing, lit up with floating crystals. Pink and blue flowers circled the area, bushes and trees carefully preened. Bees calmly buzzed around, keeping the flowers healthy. Smooth stepping stones led up to an obsidian base, quartz details bringing in the eye.

A statue sat comfortably on the platform, a peaceful expression and calm posture. An end crystal sat above the statue, almost as if the statue was casting it as a spell.

Smaller statues surrounded the main one. Each was a memento of the events he'd caused last season. A banner for the Civil War, a tag for Tag, a mini dragon for the Build-off, a sword for the Head Hunt, a cactus for Sahara, a chicken for the Poultry-man shenanigans, a beacon for the Area 77 nonsense, and a music disk for all the music he's spread.

Grian felt himself tearing up as he stepped forward. He'd only seen this place in a small orb back in the void, when he'd cried at his own funeral.

The statues eyes might not have been open, but Grian saw himself staring back.


	37. Stressed and Impressed (I guess)

"Zed what-"

"Um... There was a complication. But I did it!" Zed grinned from within the containment cell.

Doc sighed. "At least Renbob doesn't seem to be very hostile right now."

"That and the fact that I only have like, one alter and he's retired."

"Eh fair point."

Zed hummed. "So, I don't think this is Renbob anymore. I think the hivemind might've had to full take over him. We both know Renbob's a big pacifist after all."

Doc kneeled down and glanced at the figure in question. Renbob was crouched in a corner, completely silent. "Have you tried talking to him?"

"Sorta? I haven't gotten a good response. Oh! I read somewhere that smells are a great trigger, maybe if we get some flowers-"

Doc listened to Zed ramble for a bit. It might not seem like it, but Zed was one of the most fearless players he knew. Sure, Doc had worked in Area 77 last season, but he'd never dared to get too close to any of the specimens. Now he was watching Zed sit comfortably in a locked cell with a dangerous hivemind.

Not only that, but Zed didn't seemed to be fazed much. The guy had already came up with multiple stuff to try, stuff Doc had never thought about to begin with. Sandals, flowers, tie dye? Vegetables were on the list as well, Renbob was at least vegetarian.

"Okay, okay. I'll go see if I can find any of that stuff." Doc said, cutting Zed off. "Just let us know if anything happens, okay?"

"You bet!"

__________

"We've literally tried everything! It's no use, okay?"

"Wels, calm down. We'll find a way to get out of here, okay?" Ren did his best to comfort his friend. Over time Wels had grown more stressed and worried. He was usually calm and collected, so seeing the Knight like this was strange.

Wels sighed and sat down from where he was pacing. They really had tried everything, and Wels had begun to lose hope. It was frustrating, knowing the rest of the Hermits were likely in danger and that he couldn't do anything about it.

Xisuma sat down by him, and rubbed circles into his back. "We'll get out of here, I promise. It might take forever, but I know we won't be stuck here forever."

"How are you so sure?" Wels asked quietly.

"Wherever this place is, players aren't supposed to be here. Eventually the code should notice and do what it needs to do. It may take a long time, but it will happen."

Ren joined the two. "What then?"

"I don't know. Maybe the code will do a hard reset on us, perhaps it'll send us to the void... I wish I could tell you."

"What about me?"

Xisuma glanced back at ET. He'd been very quiet for a while, staying some distance away. Occasionally he'd randomly disappear, only to reappear a few hours later with no memory of what happened.

"I can't say. But no matter what happens, you'll probably return to Taurtis."

"Let's hope so."

___________

"I'm going out."

"Joe wait-"

"Don't worry Cleo, I'll be fine. I just need to retrieve some stuff from our bases." Joe gave Cleo a reassuring smile.

Cleo stood up. "I'm coming with you."

Joe shook his head. "I must do this alone."

"You sound like you're going on a quest." Cleo snorted.

Joe shrugged. "Maybe. But as the fox leaves it's den, hunts become individual, maybe packs hunt alone."

"Joe."

"I'll take some pups with me, don't worry."

Cleo crossed her arms.

Joe sighed. "You're the only player here other than me who can unsit my dogs. If an attack happens, they're gonna need you, not me. Besides, Zed's security system is way more efficient with you directing the little zombies."

"Fine. But be back before sundown or I'm coming to save you." Cleo stifled a laugh. "And be sure to grab my Shulker of armor stands!"

"I promise." 

Cleo let out an exasperated laugh. "I will never understand how you always convince me."

Joe grinned, placing a stack of ender pearls in hid offhand. "Don't worry, that's just the Joe Hills Difference."


End file.
